


Dies Irae

by elwon



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Dick became a green lantern instead of nightwing, Green Lantern!Dick, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Jason was never a robin, M/M, Oral Sex, Peril, Red Lantern!Jason, Red Lantern!Jason is its own warning, Rimming, marooned in space, space adventures, the power rings in this fic are more sentient than in canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-01-29 00:53:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12619420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elwon/pseuds/elwon
Summary: Jason’s head breaks the surface of the burning sea and he looks around for somewhere to land. There’s a high red cliff not too far away and he aims himself that direction, speeding towards the solid ground with the unconscious Green Lantern still dangling from his grasp. He lands badly, knees giving way under him as his ring pulses red light once, twice and then goes out, the last of the charge gone.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Peachidiot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peachidiot/gifts).



> peachidiot: AU prompt: a former green lantern turned red lantern (Jason) and a green lantern (Dick) he had a past with get stranded on an abandoned planet after a fight and have to work together in order to try and get off the planet or something similar. Thank you!!
> 
> This is a weird mix of comics canon and Green Lantern: The Animated Series canon.

Jason’s head breaks the surface of the burning sea and he looks around for somewhere to land. There’s a high red cliff not too far away and he aims himself that direction, speeding towards the solid ground with the unconscious Green Lantern still dangling from his grasp. He lands badly, knees giving way under him as his ring pulses red light once, twice and then goes out, the last of the charge gone. He kneels there and breathes, choking and coughing on the toxic fumes that rise up from the flames on the sea’s surface. He forces his hands to unclench from their grip on the Green Lantern’s uniform. Covering his nose and mouth with his hand, he stumbles away, hoping that the further away he gets from the sea, the cleaner the air will be.

He doesn’t spare a thought for the Green Lantern; not caring if his ring gives out or lasts while Jason strives to breathe. After a while he stumbles on what is clearly an abandoned village, red dirt coating pretty much everything, bright orange weeds covering anything the dirt hasn’t, and stone huts with doors left wide open and falling off the hinges. He collapses next to the covered well in the village square, idly pulling up the bucket and hoping that whatever passes for fresh water on this planet is safe for him to drink. He dips his finger in bucket once he’s got it over the wall of the well. It’s thin enough that it looks like water, and it smells alright. He pulls his glove off and dips his hand in. There’s no burning sensation, unlike the sea, so he decides to risk it.

He vaguely remembers a story of a planet with seas of molten glass from a long ago history lesson. Mostly because he’d been caught up in how the hell a sea of molten glass was even physically possible, not that anyone ever gave him an answer to that question. There’d been a civil war, so comprehensively awful that they’d bombed themselves to oblivion, leaving no survivors and the seas on fire for centuries and burning still. He can’t remember the name of the planet, but he figures it’s just his luck that he’d end up here. Across the way, there’s a stone hut with a wildly overgrown vegetable garden that’ll do for food while he works out how to get off this godforsaken ball of dirt.

With his ring completely drained and no comm. unit on him, Jason’s in a bind. He groans, realising that the only communications on this planet that might work is the Green Lantern’s ring. He’d quite happily leave the man to die in the toxic fumes, but he needs that ring, so he’ll have to go back. Jason ducks into the small stone hut before he heads back, grabbing the rag he saw through the window to wet and tie it around his face. It won’t do a great deal of good, but it should last long enough to block out the worst of the fumes.

Once he makes it back to the cliff, he sees the Green Lantern hasn’t moved from where he dumped him on the barren rock. It occurs to Jason that he doesn’t need Grayson as such. If he killed him the ring would return to Oa. Maybe Jason could catch a ride as it shoots into space... He picks up a large nearby rock and begins to heft it over his head, intent on crushing Grayson’s skull. He stares down at Grayson’s face, taking in the line of his jaw and fan of his lashes above his cheekbones. Grayson’s as gorgeous as ever, and Jason feels an unpleasant twinge in his chest at the thought of destroying that face. The scars on his back pull painfully, sharply and Jason drops the stone before he gets it anywhere near Grayson. He snarls, telling himself that if he kills him now, then Grayson would never know that it was Jason who ended him. He _needs_ Dick awake when he kills him. It’s the only way to make things right. He _knows_ that. He just needs to remember it.

He glares down at the unconscious man, before gripping one of his ankles and slowly dragging him behind him to the village he found earlier. He’ll tie Grayson up, get him to call for a rescue, wait for the damn ring to lose the remainder of its charge and then murder the bastard. Once he’s rescued, it’ll be a cinch to escape from the Green Lanterns and get his own red ring recharged.

***

Dick wakes up a few hours later, after Jason’s salvaged and filled a couple of water flasks and dug through the over grown garden to find as much food as possible, now bundled up in a bag ready for when Jason leaves. He’d slept through the rainstorm that Jason had briefly got caught in while digging up vegetables. Liquid glass had dropped from the clouds, coating everything briefly, before shattering with the slightest movement. The air had tickled Jason’s throat before he’d managed to get back inside. If a rescue isn’t quick in coming then staying in this village isn’t going to be possible. He’ll have to move further inland and hope the air and rain isn’t as affected by the sea as it is here. Jason’s staring at the glittering red sand covering the ground when he hears movement behind him and he turns in time to see Dick rushing at him.

Even with his hands up to push him away, Grayson still manages to grab his upper arms and thump him back into the wall. He uses his ring to wrap Jason in glowing green ropes and keep him pinned to the wall. Jason snarls wordlessly and tries to fight the bonds. He knows it’s useless, but doing nothing is not an option. Grayson smiles humourlessly. Jason opens his mouth to spit out an insult, but Grayson slaps his left hand over his mouth, gripping hard enough that Jason closes his mouth instinctively. Dick shakes his right hand minutely, causing his ring to glow brighter and then there’s the familiar hum of the power ring opening a communications channel to Oa.

“Grayson here, anyone out there?” he says, staring Jason dead in the eyes. Jason wants to gouge them right out of his pretty face. He clenches his left hand around his own chargeless ring, since that’s all he can do right now. There’s a faint crackle along the line and then a voice that Jason doesn’t recognise begins to speak.

“Dick! Where the hell are you? Gardner was beginning to get worried.” There’s a faint scuffle going on in the background.

“Was not!” A second voice yells. Dick snorts, and there’s another faint noise as if the two voices are fighting for control again.

“Seriously, though, what’s your status?” the first voice says.

“I’m fine. I’m on Petra. I’ve got a Red Lantern in custody, but my ring’s too low on charge to make it off planet. Can someone come get us? I’m sending you my coordinates. Thanks.” Dick says, calm and confident. Jason growls quietly, but all it achieves is to make Dick roll his eyes.

“...Ah, Dick? There’s a small problem.” The first voice replies. Dick scowls, and Jason wants to snort in amusement. “We can’t get anyone to you for... well a couple of hours at least. More like a day or two, if I’m honest. Maybe even three. Things are kind of hectic here right now. Look, I’m sending you the co-ordinates that someone’ll arrive at, there’s some severe atmospheric disturbance on Petra, and these co-ordinates are for the nearest safe pick-up point. It’ll probably take you a day or two to get there anyway. Will you be ok?” Dick scowls harder and sighs.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine, Rayner. See you soon.” Dick shuts off his ring before Rayner can reply, and Jason’s reminded of all the times Dick did the same thing to him, back when he was a Green Lantern. Jason hasn’t missed that at all. Dick leans back, giving Jason a hard stare.

“If I take my hand away, are you going to scream at me? Because if you are, I’m going to gag you with one of those rags and drag you to the pick-up point.” Dick emphasises the word gag by squeezing down on Jason’s jaw. It’s Jason’s turn to roll his eyes, because between the two of them _Jason’s_ never been the screamer. Dick keeps the hard stare going, so Jason shakes his head as best he can with Dick’s hand holding on to him. “Good. I have questions for you.” Dick steps back, letting his hand drop away and Jason stays quiet, trying to ignore the tingle in his lips as blood flows back into them after being flattened.

Dick looks around the hut, spotting the flasks and the bag of food, and Jason waits, saying nothing. Dick turns his attention to Jason, glancing up and down his body in a way that makes Jason uncomfortable. He’s got no right to be checking if Jason’s injured after what he did. Dick’s gaze stops on Jason’s ring. There’s no glow emanating from it, and Jason can pinpoint the exact moment Dick realises that Jason’s not shielded by the ring.

“Your ring’s run out of charge. Great! Just we need!” Dick blows out a breath, ruffling his bangs. Jason decides not to reward Dick’s sarcasm. Dick paces the hut, muttering to himself, making plans and Jason stares out the window, waiting for Dick to give his orders. He hates how nostalgic this feels; if it weren’t for the constructed ropes holding him still, he’d say nothing had changed in the last five years.

***

Dick’s ring dies about an hour after they begin to walk to the pick-up point. Even with Dick lessening his construct to handcuffs and dragging Jason behind him like he’s on a leash, it’s too much for what little charge he has left in his ring. Jason doesn’t bother to mention that the green forcefield is flickering in and out for a good half an hour before it finally goes out. Jason keeps pace behind Dick anyway, unsure what he’s waiting for. He has at least four inches of height on Dick, and much more muscle. If he wanted to take Dick by surprise and beat him to death with his bare hands, it probably wouldn’t take too much effort.

If he’s honest with himself, something he can admit he tries not to be, it’s because he’s curious at what questions Dick has for him. Not that Dick is in any hurry to ask any of these questions. He seems content to wander along the path, taking in the views as he goes. Jason supposes it’s pretty in its own way, the red of the barren earth, glittering with broken glass flakes, the occasional hardy orange grass stubbornly trying to grow amongst bare rocks that shine with a thin layer of glass. It reminds Jason of the old sci-fi movies he used to watch as a kid, the deserts of Mars brought to life in glorious Technicolor or some other distant unnamed forbidden planet that the intrepid heroes always had to escape from. Jason used to dream about being one of those heroes, saving the day and getting the love interest without breaking a sweat. He knows better now, though. He’s much more suited to playing the villain.

He doesn’t notice Dick come to a stop in front of him, so Jason walks right into him, mind a billion billion miles away, back on the planet of his birth. The planet he hasn’t returned to since he first accepted a green magic space ring and got flown at hyper-speed to Oa. They stumble as Jason crashes into Dick, hands automatically coming up to stop Dick landing face first into the dirt, one hand catching on Dick’s leather jacket, and the other on the back pocket of his jeans. Dick half turns to look at him, vulnerability painted across his face. Jason tells himself the flush of red is from the reflection from the ground, from Jason’s own red lantern uniform, anything other than the possibility that Dick still has tender feelings for him.

Dick pushes him away roughly, suddenly, anger hiding whatever he’d been feeling before. It’s a little ironic that Jason’s the one running on rage, considering that Dick was always the one with the quicker more explosive temper.

“Don’t...” Dick starts and then stops. “Ok, I’ve got to ask, your ring’s dead, but you’ve still got your uniform on. How?” Jason blinks, that was not the first question he expected. It’s unexpected enough that he ends up answering without really thinking about it.

“Because, obviously, _my_ suit isn’t a construct.” Jason scoffs, tugging at the lapels of his jacket, and automatically checking his pocket for his magazine. “That’s what you want to ask me? Really?” Jason stares at Dick, wondering if he was always this... this.

“Oh, I have plenty to ask you, Jason. But now I’ve got the most annoying question out of the way, why don’t I start on the others?” Dick says sharply, scowl deepening.

Jason clamps his mouth shut. He really doesn’t want to give Dick the satisfaction of answering anything. A fresh, welcome burst of rage rejuvenates him, and instead of speaking, he starts walking, heading towards where the path starts sloping upwards towards a high ridge of stone.

“You can’t get away from me, Jason. You’ll have to talk eventually!” Dick calls out, frustrated and weary.

***

It takes a couple of hours to rise over the ridge, following the path upwards. Once they crest the top, they’re greeted with a massive glittering plain, flat for as far as the eye can see. It’s a stunning vista, and Jason hears Dick suck in a gasp as he stares out at the landscape. Jason would appreciate the beauty more if there were any signs of shelter from the open elements. With both their rings depleted, there’s nothing they can do if they get caught in the rains of glass that clearly reach this far inland.

Dick pushes at his shoulder, a wordless sign to keep walking and Jason bites back the snarl that bubbles up. He needs Dick to drop his guard, killing him by pushing him down the ridge is a better plan than trying to fight someone trained by the Batman, after all. It might have been a few years since Dick’s actually needed his hand to hand combat training, but why risk it when the opportunity to let gravity do most of the work is right there?

Going down takes less time than going up, partly because the slope is shallower and partly because the glass drops are more abundant on this side of the ridge and they skid down the slope fairly easily. Once they reach the bottom, Dick hands him one of the water flasks and Jason takes a good few mouthfuls before passing it back. He hadn’t realised how thirsty he was. He’s got too used to his body not needing anything while under the red ring’s forcefield that he’s forgotten how often he needs to eat and drink.

“Feel like talking yet?” Dick says, putting the water flask back in the bag with the food and shifting the bag’s strap on his shoulder. Jason sighs, closing his eyes and feeling far more tired than he should at this point.

“I have nothing to say to you. _Dick_.” Jason grits out, resisting the urge to rub his hands over his face. He opens his eyes when he hears Dick move, the rustling of his jacket against his jeans loud in the near total silence of this dead planet. Dick’s got his determined face on, but his eyes are a little wild, maybe even desperate. Part of Jason is elated that he’s pushed Dick to look like that. A smaller, quieter and ignored part of him feels sickened.

“Too bad. We’ve got a lot of time to fill until we get to leave. We’re going to fill it with you answering all of my questions, _Jason_. I mean, we just have so much to catch up on, don’t we!” Dick says, cheerfulness forcefully faked, as if they’re just two old pals meeting up unexpectedly after several years apart, and not enemies as they are.

“Do we?” Jason says, tone bland on purpose. “I don’t think we do. You’ve been palling around the universe with that Tameranian, re-applying band aids on the sector’s problems and thinking you’re such a hero! I, on the other hand, have actually been solving those problems and you can’t stand that, can you?” Jason starts walking, giving him a reason to not look at Dick’s face to see if his words hit the mark. He watches his boots crunch down into the glass on the path. It’s a strangely satisfying sound, like crunching his sneakers into the heavy winter snow in Gotham as a kid.

“You really believe that? You really think the Red Lanterns are saving people? Jason, come on, you can’t be that ...blind!” Dick snaps back at him, catching up to him and matching Jason’s long strides easily.

“We are. More than you Green Lanterns ever could.” Jason glances to the side; catching sight of Dick’s flabbergasted expression at his words.

“Jason, you kill people. Genocide is basically the goal of your corps. How is that saving anyone?” Dick gesticulates wildly, his arms thrown up to his shoulders and his whole body emanating his utter exasperation. Jason won’t admit to Dick that Atrocitus has enough control over him that whether Jason wants to or not, he’ll be forced to do as ordered, up to and including wiping out whole planets. Jason doesn’t want planets gone, but what Jason wants has never mattered now, has it?

“Oh save me your moralising, bleeding heart lectures. I’m not debating methodology with you. I’m a Red Lantern for a reason.” Jason lets the sigh slip out despite himself. “I thought you dropped the whole Never Kill Because Batman Says So shit when you quit being Robin and became a Green Lantern.”

“Are you kidding me? There’s a huge difference between killing as a last resort and genocide. I can’t believe I have to point this out to you.” Dick waves his arms around so wildly that his hand whacks into Jason’s arm. Jason grimaces, but decides to let it go as it obviously wasn’t deliberate.

“For fuck’s sake, Dick! Why are you acting as if becoming a Red Lantern was a choice? It wasn’t! But here I am, and I’ll do what I have to.” Jason yells, voice echoing in the empty plain. “I don’t expect you to like it. I don’t actually give a fuck if you don’t. What are you gonna do about it, anyway? Oh yeah, that’s right. _Nothing_. So save me the ‘Oh no, Jason, be a better person!’ speeches. I’m done with them.” Dick recoils, looking a little shaken at Jason’s vitriol. The anger feels right and good and Jason rides the elation for as long as he can until Dick’s quiet voice cuts it dead.

“I’m sorry Jason. I should’ve been there for you.”

***

6 YEARS AGO:

The rain’s beginning to come down harder, so Jason ducks under into a doorway in the alley outside the group home. So far his sixteenth birthday has proved to be just as underwhelming as all the ones preceding it, and judging from the dark storm clouds overhead, there’s little chance of it improving before it’s over. Jason shoves his hands into the pockets of leather jacket. It’s really too warm to be wearing it, but he doesn’t trust the other boys in the home not to steal or destroy it, especially that Michael guy, he’s had it in for Jason since the first moment they met. So here he is, sweating under the thick leather just to keep one of the few mementos he has of his mom.

He leans back in the doorway, resting his head against the doorjamb and closing his eyes. He pretends he’s anywhere else right now. His thoughts flick to the magazine in his pocket, the one he’s hiding for later on, in private. It’s embarrassing enough to be caught with a copy of Gotham Teen Beat, cover enthusiastically boasting a full middle page spread of Dick Grayson, Gotham’s Teen Prince, complete with an in depth interview of his life as a college freshman. He’ll never admit he _paid_ for it.

Jason becomes aware of a light shining in his eyes, so he lifts his hand to shield them, opening them to slits and ready to defend himself if need be. Except all he sees is a green glow surrounding a ring, hovering in front of him. Jason blinks and wonders if maybe he managed to get dosed with the flavour of the week drug that Gotham’s supervillains are exposing the populace to. He reaches out, brushing a fingertip along the metal. The ring spins in place, giving Jason the impression of annoyance. It hangs there, glowing, while Jason stares at it. He’s not sure why, but he reaches out again, letting the middle finger of his left hand trace the band of the ring. Slowly, almost hesitantly, the ring slips down his finger, as if to say ‘you’ll do, I suppose’.

The green glow brightens until it fills his vision. Jason feels weightless, and it’s not until he drops his gaze down to his feet that he realises he’s flying. Up hey goes, higher and higher past the skyscrapers and the clouds. Jason thinks he should probably be panicking, but he feels calm. Higher now and he’s breaking through the atmosphere, Jason surrounded by the green glow as he hurtles through space. He glances over his shoulder and sure enough, there’s Earth, getting smaller and smaller as he goes deeper into space. He turns back to look at his hand, fingers curled into a fist as the ring takes him away.

***

He must have passed out at some point, because he wakes in an unfamiliar room. It’s entirely white and clean, with no windows but an open door. There are sounds of life outside, and Jason sits up, letting his boots down to the floor with a satisfyingly loud thunk. He’s about to stand when someone walks into the room and Jason has to pinch himself. If the magic carpet, well, ring, ride through space wasn’t enough to make him think he was dreaming, then seeing Dick Grayson in the flesh in a skin tight black suit with green stripes down the arms to the tips of his fingers is so much more than enough. Jason can feel himself gaping, but the sheer outlandishness of the situation warrants it.

“Ah, you’re awake. Good. Hello, welcome to Oa.” Dick fucking Grayson says, smiling at Jason warmly. “My name’s Dick, and I’ll be your mentor while you’re training with us.” Jason can feel his jaw drop further open, oh my god, he has that magazine in his pocket, Jason could get him to sign it! But that would mean admitting his has it... Although, wait what?

“Training? What the fuck? Where am I?” Jason blurts out, and Dick blinks and the smile dims. Jason feels awful, that pretty face is made for smiling.

“You’re on Oa. You accepted the ring; you’re a Green Lantern now.” Dick says, calm and soothing. “What’s your name?”

“...Wait like the dude in the Justice League?” This can’t be a dream, Jason wouldn’t dream of being a superhero, he’s too practical. “Jason. Jason Todd. I guess this’ll teach me not to pick up the glowing bling in future.” Dick laughs and Jason feels a swell of pride at making _Dick Grayson_ laugh.

“I’m Dick Grayson. Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps. Yes, like the dude in the Justice League. Don’t worry, everyone here picked up the ‘glowing bling’ too.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m, uh, I’m from Gotham too.” Jason hopes like hell he’s not blushing as much as he thinks he is.

“I thought so, from your accent. You know, I’ve got to say, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone’s uniform do that before.” Dick grins at Jason, conspiratorially. Jason looks down at himself, not sure what Dick’s referring to. His clothes look the same as they did earlier, don’t they? Oh, no, they don’t. His boots are just as heavy duty as they’ve always been, except less scuffed, his jeans are now pure black, and his wonder woman t-shirt is now green with the same logo that’s on Dick’s chest. The only thing that hasn’t changed is his leather jacket.

Apart from the ring on his finger he could be a civilian.

***

After several weeks of intense training with both Dick and Kilowog, who Jason so far has managed not to call ‘the Space Rhino’ to his face, Dick finally lets Jason have enough time off to explore Oa. Jason loves flying, the feeling of weightlessness and freedom is intoxicating. It’s almost as intoxicating as bringing a smile to Dick’s face, the sheer joy that radiates from the man when Jason masters a trick or technique after they’ve spent a long morning or afternoon working on it.

Today though, Jason’s soaring through the sky, seeing how fast and high he can go before someone comes to reel him in. Sure enough, after a while of dive bombing and pulling up just before he hits the ground, he turns around and there Dick is, hovering in the air with a fond smile on his face. Jason feels his face heat and his heart flip in his chest at that smile. He floats over to Dick, hand automatically going to his ring, pushing it down further on his finger a millimetre or two. The ring still feels unwieldy on his finger, as if it’s a size too big and just waiting to slip off at a moment’s notice. He barely realises he’s fiddling with it again, basking in the glow of Dick’s contentment. He’s far more relaxed outside of the training grounds, making dorky jokes and attempting to mess up Jason’s hair.

It feels like they’re actual friends now, and Jason wouldn’t change that for anything. And if the weight of that Gotham Teen Beat magazine sometimes feels heavier in his pocket than it should, well that’s no one’s business but Jason’s.

“Look at you; you’re becoming a real flyboy now!” Dick teases, reaching out to ruffle Jason hair. Jason dodges backwards, just out of arm’s reach making Dick grin.

“Becoming? How rude. I have mastered it, thank you very much.” Jason smirks back playfully.

“Well, you had the best teacher, it’s true...” Dick says, flipping over him with more flamboyance and twists than Jason thinks is really necessary, but takes his time to admire anyway. Dick has all the skill to do that without the ring, but the joy he takes in performing high in the air is infectious.

“You know I’m gonna tell Tomar-Re that you said that. I can’t wait to see the two of you face off. I might even take bets on who wins!” Jason makes a construction of a notebook and mimes writing down odds.

“Aww, you’d bet on me? That’s so sweet, Jay.” Dick does an extra twirl and then a bow with a little flourish.

“Hell no, I’m betting on Tomar-Re. Have you seen his constructs? They are insane.” Jason leaps up over Dick, putting his hand on Dick’s head to push him down. “I admit you might be the better flyer, but there’s no way I’ll say that in public without some sort of payment.”

“Payment? You mean a bribe. Is this what we’re sinking to, now? Bribery and corruption. This is a sad, sad day for the Corps.” Dick shakes his head mock sadly, grin widening as he comes up level to Jason and pokes him in the ribs.

“Hey, waddya want from me, I’m a Gotham native, for fuck’s sake. Bribery and corruption is how we work.” Jason pushes Dick back gently, and Dick floats back grabbing Jason’s shoulder and going in to tickle Jason’s sides. Jason stares at him unimpressed as Dick runs his fingers up and down, getting no reaction from Jason at all.

“Oh come on, seriously? That does nothing for you?” Dick pouts, and Jason pushes down the urge to dive in kiss it away. “This would have me rolling about on the floor in tears!”

“Guess I’m just made of sterner stuff than you, Grayson.” Jason snorts, a smile threatening the edges of his mouth, but he manages to keep his stern look.

“So unfair...” Dick sighs. “Ok, fine, you want a bribe? I think I can manage that.” Jason blinks and Dick leans in dropping a quick light kiss on Jason’s mouth. “How’s that for a down payment?”

“That’s good... really good.” Jason murmurs, expression a little pole-axed. “Glad you could manage it.”

“Yeah?” Dick leans back in and nuzzles at Jason’s nose with his own, and Jason throws caution to the wind, kissing Dick full and deep until his lungs burn with the need to breathe.

“Yeah.” Jason whispers between kisses. “You do know I was only gonna ask for a chocolate bar, right?” Dick laughs, bright eyes shining as he leans in for another kiss.

***

When Dick’s off planet, either visiting Earth or following the Guardians orders, Jason wanders the GL HQ, watching the other lanterns as they go about their business. He’s not the only rookie around, but he’s fallen into hanging out with a few of the younger lanterns that have been around for a while.

He meets Chaselon when Dick gives him the tour. The crystalline alien is sitting behind a desk, idly poking at buttons in an attempt to look busy when Dick calls out to him.

“Hey, Chaselon, how’s it going?” Dick smiles at him, making the small crystalline being look up and sparkle a little.

“Oh, um, fine! Thank you, Lantern Grayson!” Chaselon mumbles and Dick beams at him as they walk past. Jason squints at the sparkling, but waves at the guy. He receives a shy wave in return.

“So, that was Chaselon, he’s from Barrio III, the lantern for sector 1416 and a sweetheart, so be nice to him. I love that little man.” Dick says, and Jason snorts, because of course Dick liked him. Jason’s got to know Dick pretty well at this point and his love of colour and glitter is no secret.

“Of course you like him, he’s basically a living disco ball!” Jason grins, and Dick gives him a look, but doesn’t deny it either.

“You know, I’ve always thought of him as more of a Swarovski crystal...” Dick admits sheepishly and Jason can’t hold back his laughter.

***

He meets the Green Lantern of sector 1014 one day during lunch. Jason’s minding his own business, eating a bowl of Space Noodles when a Space Squirrel runs up and chitters loudly at him. He’s wearing a Green Lantern uniform, and Jason stares, not quite sure how this is his life. Not only does he have to deal with dating his celebrity crush, but now there are Space Squirrels to contend with? The Space Squirrel chitters again and gestures at his bowl. Jason flicks his gaze between his bowl and the little lantern, wishing he’d not left his ring in his quarters so he could understand.

The squirrel shrugs exaggeratedly and grabs the bowl out of Jason’s hand and runs off, fast. Jason blinks in shock for a second or two and then he moves, running after his lunch. If there’s one thing you don’t do to a former Gotham street kid, it’s steal his food. The squirrel is a crafty little thing, running up walls and into small gaps that Jason has to go around. Dodging under low objects, making Jason slam into walls and stumble over his own feet in his speed.

Eventually, after Jason’s bruised himself up and whacked his head a few times, he’s caught in a green light. The only upside to being caught in a construct bubble is that the squirrel is too. Jason grabs the bowl back. It might be empty but it’s the principal of the thing. He got his bowl back, that means he won. Sort of. He looks up to see Dick laughing at him, hard enough that he almost can’t keep the construct up.

“Good job guys!” Dick can barely get the words out between his giggles. “You both worked really hard there.” The squirrel chitters excitedly in response. Jason glares at them both.

“You both owe me lunch.” He grits out, waving the bowl towards Dick’s smirking face. 

***

He meets Larvox sometime after that, out on a walk with Dick. The multi-limbed Green Lantern is in the commissary with Chaselon, pouring over a vid on a holo-display.

“Hey, let’s go say hi to Chaselon and Larvox. You should get to know everyone.” Dick pats Jason on the shoulder and points them out. Jason shrugs, he’s happy enough to say hey to the living discoball. Dick walks up silently behind them to peer over their shoulders at the vid. Jason follows but hangs back, respecting their space.

“Oh hey, is that Guy?” Dick asks, making them startle and Jason bites back a grin as Chaselon fumbles to catch the holo-display that got thrown into the air when he jumped. It flips over a couple of times, and Jason can just see Guy Gardner’s face on the display. Larvox relaxes down from his back two legs, having gone up on them in surprise, he lowers his arms down from his face as he realises Dick’s smiling at them.

“Oh, um. Yes!” Chaselon sparkles in embarrassment. “We found a high quality vid of his battle with a Red Lantern over Tamaran. We’ve, er, we’ve been studying his moves.” Larvox nods, his one eye blinking sincerely. “Would you like to join us, Lantern Grayson, Lantern Todd?”

“Oh why don’t we? I don’t think Jason’s ever seen Guy in action.” Dick accepts, smiling warmly at the two lanterns. They sit down and Chaselon restarts the vid from the beginning. Dick’s got the sort of smile on his face that makes Jason think he knows a joke that the rest of them don’t. Jason knows that Dick isn’t all that fond of Guy. Dick’s mentioned that both Jordan and Stewart try to avoid working with him if they can. On that basis alone, Jason wants to like him, he knows how it feels to be avoided because people have pre-judged you.

From what Jason can see on the vid, Gardner might be a bit of a jerk, but he’s also a damn capable Lantern. His combat skills are pretty good, and from the looks Chaselon and Larvox are giving the vid, they clearly like him, oohing and aahing whenever he pulls off a particularly tricky move. While Jason’s gonna keep an open mind about Gardner, he’s pretty much decided that Chaselon and Larvox are adorable.

“Well, that was fun, but we’d better make a move, right Jay?” Dick says after the vid finishes. Dick stands up, and tilts his head in a let’s get out of here way.

“Yeah, sure.” Jason says, pushing up from his seat. “Hey, if you guys get any other good vids, let me know? I’d like to see more.”

“Oh yes, Lantern Todd! We will. It is always nice to make new friends with similar interests.” Chaselon says, waving an arm at him. Larvox nods and waves a few arms happily at him. Jason nods back. As they walk away, out of the commissary, Dick gives Jason a questioning look.

“What? You literally just said I should get to know them.” Jason grumbles. “Why are you giving me that look?”

“I didn’t think you’d actually do it. You always keep to yourself.” Dick says. “I was getting a little worried, it’s not good for humans to spend so much time alone.” Dick gives him that small soft smile that he only seems to direct to Jason, and Jason hopes he’s not blushing.

“Yeah, well. They’re sweethearts, like you said. And I guess I wouldn’t mind spending time with them.” Jason rubs at the back of his neck, suddenly feeling awkward. “I mean, I’m always gonna wanna spend time with you more than anyone else... but yeah, it’s not such a terrible idea to have friends of my own, I guess.”

Dick’s still smiling that private smile at him, and Jason can’t really bear it anymore. So he does the only thing that feels right at that moment, leaning in to kiss that smile of Dick’s face. Dick makes a small but happy noise, wrapping his arms around Jason shoulders while he rests his hands on Dick’s hips.

“That was nice.” Dick whispers, running his fingers through Jason’s hair. “Still better than a chocolate bar?”

“Yeah, always.” Jason whispers back, sliding his arms around Dick’s waist and leaning his forehead against Dick’s.

***

This has got to be around the eighth time that the Space Squirrel has stolen his lunch. Jason knows his name is Ch’p now, but until the little Lantern stops stealing his lunch he will remain the squirrel. Jason’s been getting better at chasing him; he’s managed to close the gap in distance between them, although the squirrel still has him beat in speed. And while the chases are still leading him all over Oa, Jason’s caught up to him the last couple of times, but his bowl’s still been empty when he has.

The squirrel now has a tendency to climb up to his head and pat him after their chases, as if congratulating him on a job well done. It’s incredibly annoying, but Jason can admit it probably makes for a hilarious sight, at least if the look on Dick’s face whenever he finds them is anything to go by.

The squirrel dodges, and Jason remembers that when he goes under that low bridge he has a tendency to go left and up the side of the science division building. Jason peels off, flying up to the ledge that the squirrel usually uses to dart inside the building and then down to the street again. For once, Jason gets there first. And he takes the precious seconds to position himself ready to trap the little bugger.

Sure enough, the Lantern of 1014 runs across the platform and Jason lunges for him. His fingers close around the squirrel’s middle and Jason holds him aloft. He squirms and chitters and Jason grins, triumphant. Even if he lets go, Jason won! Finally.

The squirrel stops squirming and looks up at Jason with his big dewy eyes. He chitters happily, offering Jason the bowl. Jason gets the feeling that he just passed some kind of test. He let’s go of Ch’p, taking the bowl and one of Ch’p’s little paws. Jason shakes it gently, and Ch’p looks down at his paw and back up to Jason’s face in confusion. Ch’p jumps up onto Jason’s head, patting him. Jason picks up a Space Noodle carefully and offers it to the squirrel sitting on his head. Ch’p chitters excitedly and Jason laughs at how ridiculous his life is.

Jason flies them back to the commissary, dumping his now cold Space Noodles in the trash and walking over to the vending machines. He selects a new bowl of Space Noodles and a packet of Space Nuts. They sit together, Ch’p demolishing the Space Nuts while Jason enjoys his well earned hot Space Noodles. Having lunch with friends is really nice, Jason realises.

***

5 YEARS AGO:

The diplomatic mission to Racxkalo, mediating between two rival factions in a government, who seem dead set on planetary war, is far from Jason’s first mission. It is however the first that he and Dick have been given without an older more experienced Lantern there to guide them. If there’s one thing that makes Jason’s eyes glaze over with boredom, it’s long tedious negotiations with both sides nit-picking even the most innocuous wording. So, naturally, that’s exactly the kind of mission they’ve been given.

The Hofi faction of the Racxkalons are deeply religious, and view any kind of slight against their gods as grounds for all out slaughter. Jason dislikes them for their attitudes, with their preponderance of rituals and ceremonies for just about anything, and their insistence that each and every member of their delegation has every single title they hold (and they all have multiples), announced before they’ll deign to take a seat and allow negotiations to begin.

The Kamon faction isn’t much better, if he’s honest. While they have their own gods, they value business above all else. Trade disputes are what they seem to live for. Jason dislikes them on principle, memories of how many big business men had ignored or spat upon the people of Gotham’s East End, the kind of people who said that the poor deserved their lot because they were poor and just didn’t work enough. While they don’t stand on ceremony anywhere near as much as the Hofi, the greedy glints in their eyes and the twitching of their fingers as if they’re counting money right there leave Jason uncomfortable.

One of the Hofi is currently detailing everything wrong with one certain sub-clause in the peace treaty, and has been for the last ten minutes. Which is impressive in all the wrong ways, considering the clause is less than fifteen words. Jason’s attention has drifted off while the cleric has droned on; he’s staring out one of the massive windows in the huge conference room, watching the fluffy light blue clouds move across the pastel green sky. Dick subtly steps on his foot, dragging his attention back to the job at hand.

A gong sounds, and the Hofi all stand and file out to their places of worship for the evening religious services without another word. The Kamon disperse much more slowly, laughing and joking and asking their fellows out for the evening meal. Dick waits until the room is cleared before he turns to Jason and makes a face of exasperation.

“Is it just me, or did we achieve precisely nothing all day?” Dick says, running his hand through his messy hair. It’s badly in need of a cut, but Jason thinks the shaggy looks actually suits Dick. As fun as musing on Dick’s hair is, and to be honest, so far it is the highlight of his day, Jason sighs and tries to decide how sarcastic his response should be.

“Oh it’s definitely just you. I mean, I have _no idea_ how you missed them signing that peace treaty in the first five minutes of the meeting. I woulda thunk the parade and the ticker tape would have been a dead giveaway for you, Dickie.” So, apparently heavily sarcastic how he decided to go. Judging from Dick’s grimace, it might have been a bit too far. Oh well. Jason stands up, rolling his shoulders to get the stiffness out of them from sitting in the same place for far too long, hand slipping absently to his pocket to feel for the magazine.

“Ugh. Come on, let’s get out of here and, god, I don’t know. Do anything but sit listening to people talk?” Dick offers his hand, and Jason reaches down and pulls Dick to his feet. They wander out of the hall, and then out of the government building with no destination in mind. No stops them at any point, so they make the vaguest plans to find somewhere to eat and just walk.

Eventually they end up in the market sector, a bustling place with street food and entertainers and just about anything you could think of for sale at one of the many, many stalls lining the old cobbled streets below the citadel.

“Oh my god, Jay, you have to try this!” Dick exclaims, shoving a tall cup of what looks like mouldy gelatinous goop at him. Jason stops himself from rearing back from the cup, barely, and looks between Dick and the cup warily. It looks disgusting and Jason does not want to try it, but Dick’s eyes are sparkling in joy and Jason hesitantly opens his mouth to the spoon Dick’s holding up for him.

“Hmmm, well. That’s kinda an acquired taste there, Dickie.” Jason manages politely after he’s swallowed the mouthful of goop. While it was nowhere near as bad as he thought it would be, it still wasn’t exactly nice.

“It tastes just like Roquefort! Texture’s different of course. Oh man, now I miss Alfred’s Cheese and Crackers.” Dick says, mournfully. Dick looks down into his cup and looks wistful, and Jason is about to comfort him when Dick starts shovelling in the goo at speed and Jason’s too disgusted to even put a hand on his shoulder. “Oo wan so?”

“No... No, Dickie, I do not want some.” Jason snorts softly in fond amusement. “Hey, you wanna see if somewhere in this place they sell Space Pizza?”

“You can just call it pizza, Jay, you don’t need to add space to the beginning of _every_ food stuff, you know.” Dick smirks, tossing his now empty cup into a nearby waste receptacle and taking Jason’s hand, lacing their fingers together. They wander for a while more, pointing out things on stalls, still looking for the Space Pizza. Dick stops to admire a silvery chain necklace, gaze brought back to it over and again, before he moves onto the next stall. Jason picks the chain up; gesturing to the seller he’ll take it. Thirty seconds later, the chain’s wrapped in a small piece of cloth and Jason catches up to Dick. Jason shoves the little bundle at Dick wordlessly, turning away to peruse other stalls. Jason doesn’t want to make a big deal of giving Dick jewellery, but the hug that he receives from behind tells him just how happy Dick is.

The good mood is shattered when Dick gets a message from his ring. His entire demeanour changes, he stiffens and straightens, and Jason sighs, hoping the Guardians aren’t reaming them out for not sorting the negotiations out already. It’s worse when Dick finally speaks.

“Now’s really not a good time, Bruce. Are you sure it can’t wait?” Dick sighs gustily. “I am actually doing my job, you know. You know I’m in a totally different galaxy, right? I can’t just drop everything because you say so.” Dick looks over to Jason guiltily, and Jason just knows that Dick’s about to drop everything and run back to Earth. It’s not the first time Bruce has called and Dick’s left with a moment’s notice. It is the first time that he’s called while they’re on a mission. Jason’s pretty sure his annoyance is showing on his face, because Dick looks miserable. “It really can’t wait?”

Jason huffs, staring up at the darkening green sky, wishing not for the first time that Bruce didn’t have such a hold over Dick. Bruce apparently has a lot to say for himself, given how long Dick’s gone without speaking. Dick sighs, turning to face Jason, letting his ring end the call.

“You cannot be serious.” Jason says, interrupting whatever Dick was about to say. “You can’t actually be thinking about leaving me here in the middle of this goddamn nightmare of bureaucracy, because Daddy Dearest won’t call Superman for help?” Irritation and frustration and disappointment are a bad mix, because Jason’s on the verge of losing his temper.

“It won’t be for long, Jay!” Dick tries. “I swear, I’ll be back before you know it.” Dick’s pleading face hardens a little when Jason doesn’t back down.

“Even if it’s a damn apocalypse back there, why the hell can’t the Justice League deal with it? Or I don’t know, the rest of the Corps? Why’s it gotta be you?” Jason snaps, tucking his hands under his arms in order to keep himself from doing something stupid with his fists.

“It’s my _family_ Jason, maybe you don’t understand that, but they mean the world to me!” Dick spits out, realising just how awful that sounds the second it leaves his lips. Jason’s stiffened, actually taken a step back, and his anger has turned him cold and brittle in the bright sunshine of the end of the day.

“Right, well it’s great to know where I, and our damn _jobs_ rank with you compared to the fucking Batman.” Jason says between gritted teeth. “Have a great time saving the Earth.”

“Jason, come on, I didn’t mean it like that. You know I didn’t.” Dick looks torn up, and if he were staying, Jason would forgive him in a heartbeat. “Look, you’ve got this covered here. You’re doing great, and I’ll be back in a day or two, a week _max_ , I promise? Ok?”

“Sure, whatever you say, Dickie. I don’t need you here. Go.” Jason says, clearly lying. Dick, however nods, powering up his forcefield and taking off to the sky. Jason watches him fly off, disbelief etched over his face. What the fuck just happened? He’s really leaving Jason alone to deal with this farce of a peace treaty? He didn’t even kiss him goodbye! What the actual fuck?

***

NOW:

Jason’s painfully reminded of all the times Dick was there. And the one time he wasn’t. Apologies change nothing; he knows that, but the quiet sincerity in Dick’s voice banks the fires back down.

“Well. You weren’t. So here we are, living with it.” Jason bites out. Part of him wants to forgive Dick, wipe that sad look of his face, but that part is screaming into the hurricane of Jason’s rage and is barely heard over his hate.

Dick looks away, a slight frown marring his otherwise perfect features. He looks back at Jason, gearing up to say something else and Jason doesn’t want to hear it. Hasn’t wanted any of this conversation, and so he begins walking again. Dick lets him.

Dick lets him walk on avoiding conversation for good couple of hours. Eventually the flat plains of sparkling red show a small... something in the distance. As they grow closer to it, the sun dips towards the horizon and Jason’s head begins to ache with the constant reflected glare from the sand. He staggers once, spraying sand and glass in a wide fan in front of him. Twice, he nearly falls down, getting his feet back under him just in time. He feels a little dizzy standing up, but he regains his equilibrium after a few seconds of breathing hard. He slips down to his knee the third time, cursing under his breath. Dick stands tall over him, face blank and closed off, wordlessly offering a hand up that Jason smacks away to Dick’s weary, resigned sigh. The fourth time Jason goes down, everything goes black and Jason welcomes the embrace of sleep.

He wakes up, head still pounding, to the orange light of a small fire and Dick sitting in arm’s reach of his head. Jason tries to sit up, barely managing until he gets both arms under himself and pushes. The thing in the distance earlier turned out to be a large boulder, and now they’re resting on the leaside of it, the most rudimentary shelter you can get. How Dick got the fire started Jason doesn’t know, but he’s glad he did. Dick eyes him warily, offering the water flask. Jason grabs for it and misses. His arms feel like lead and just the act of sitting up exhausts him. Dick leans over more and puts the flask in his hand. Jason uncaps it and takes a deep swallow of the cool water inside. He recaps it and hands the flask back to Dick, not bothering to thank him. Dick heaves an aggrieved sigh, but throws one of the root vegetables that Jason had scavenged back at the village to him. It looks like a Space Carrot. He bites into it, chewing it slowly. Eating’s something he hasn’t done in a while and the simple act of mashing the raw root between his teeth now feels odd. It’s gone in a few bites and Jason stares up at the sky, seeing stars and wondering just how far away those Green Lanterns are from Petra.

Dick shifts, pressing both shoulders back into the rock. Jason glances at him, trying to dredge up enough feeling to fight off the questions that Dick’s bound to ask now. But he can’t, he’s tired, so tired, but the thought of sleep makes him want to ... well honestly, nothing. Moving is too much to even contemplate now, and he thinks if Dick speaks, he’ll probably answer. He can’t even dredge up enough energy to care about that, either.

“I’m going to ask now.” Dick announces, as if Jason didn’t know that. “I guess the most important one is what happened on Racxkalo? Secondly, why didn’t you come back to Oa?”

“Number one: Shit. Number two: I became a Red Lantern.” Jason says, far too easily. “That good enough? Or are we going full on interrogation here, Grayson?”

“Nowhere near good enough. You... I... I thought you were dead. I had to live with not knowing what happened for five years, Jason. Please, I get that you don’t care now, but please, if you ever did. I just need to know...” Dick chokes up, lifting a hand to his face and Jason wonders if he’s crying.

Jason feels his heart twist painfully deep down. He can only think of one thing to say to that. So, he says it.

“You really want to know? Fine, I’ll tell you what happened, and then if you’ve still got questions... Well. You can go fuck yourself.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason (through no fault of his own) does not have it covered.

5 YEARS AGO:

Jason does not have it covered. Put him in a combat situation and he excels. Ask him to plan a long term operation against the Sinestro Corps, and he’ll get a fairly decent outline put together within a day or so. Put him in a kitchen and he’ll whip up a three course meal in the time it would take Dick to look through the food stores. Leave him alone to provide balance to incredibly tense peace negotiations with two rival factions who refuse to compromise on anything no matter how minor? 

Jason’s tearing his hair out and so utterly frustrated that he could quite easily punch every single ‘diplomat’ into submission and not feel the slightest bit guilty. Unfortunately that’s not an option he’s allowed, so instead he calls for the negotiations to close for the night, hoping that everyone getting a good night’s sleep will mean the morning’s meeting will go far more smoothly.

Jason walks into the suite of rooms that the Racxkalons have given him and sighs heavily. He rubs at his eyes, willing the exhaustion away. What he really wants is a five minute break from being Green Lantern Todd and few minutes of just being Jason. He locks his door, slipping off his power ring and leaving it on the low table in the middle of the room, knowing that if he needs it, it’ll come to him. He wants to feel the breeze on his face, to sit in the middle of the lush purple lawn that’s just outside his rooms and feel the blades of grass between his fingers. He slides his hand into his pocket, running his fingers along the edges of the magazine.

He wanders out of the wide glazed double doors and feels nothing but relief as soon as the wind ruffles his hair. He walks across the lawn, letting the scent of the nearby pearlescent flowers soothe him. He tilts his head up, looking at the unfamiliar constellations in the night sky. He doesn’t wander far enough to lose sight of the doors to his room, just in case.

Jason’s been outside for maybe two minutes, shoulders finally loosening after all the stress of trying to calm down two factions of a planet seemingly set on all out civil war, when he realises something is off. There’s no signs of wildlife, and the breeze which was pleasant and cool is now warm. He drops his head down, looking in front of him and sees a thousand metre wall of fire moving towards him at an alarming pace. He twists on his heel, running for his rooms, willing his ring to him. He doesn’t have time to feel panic or fear, there’s really no time to do anything but run instinctively. He reaches out and sees his ring glow and fly towards him. He spreads his fingers ready for the ring to slide onto his finger.

The ring comes out of the double doors and then in a sharp ninety degree angle shoots up. Up in to the sky and Jason can’t even make out the shine of it as it breaks the atmosphere.

Jason screams.

He trips, falling to his knees as he feels the heat of the flames growing closer to him.

He feels a welter of confusion and rage, betrayal riding along behind. He can’t understand why his ring would leave him behind.

Jason can feel his jacket begin to burn. He’s going to die here. Abandoned by the one thing he was supposed to be able to trust implicitly. It almost doesn’t matter about the flames burning him from the outside when he’s burning from rage within.

In front of him, he sees another tsunami of fire coming at him, orange flames burning viciously in the distance. And then, red.

Glowing red right in front of him, filling his vision. Smoothly, with confidence, the red ring slips down onto his finger, as if to say ‘I have finally found you’, because his hand is still stretched out in front of him. He watches helplessly as his hand clenches into a fist reflexively.

Jason feels weightless, as the ring lifts him from the ground, rising up high into the air, the now familiar feeling of flying. Up he goes, higher and higher past the walls of fire. Jason feels nothing but rage. Higher now and he’s breaking through the atmosphere, Jason surrounded by the red glow as he hurtles through space. He glances over his shoulder and sure enough, there’s Racxkalo, two tsunami of fire cashing into each other and obliterating all living things on the planet. They couldn’t even wait fifteen minutes after the meeting was ended to bring about Armageddon on themselves. He’d scream, but what’s the point? He turns back to look at his hand, fingers curled into a fist as the ring takes him away.

***

There’s a haze of red, hot, pulsating rage radiating through him. The red licks at his skin; it warms his bones and boils his blood. He feels charred down to the soul. He drowns in the overwhelming sensation of freedom as he burns endlessly. He crushes and slashes, hacks and punches, kicks and shoves, felling his enemies with mindless fury. He swims eagerly in the red for what could be days or minutes or eternity, relishing the power and nurturing the sweet righteous anger until it cuts down anything or anyone who tries to get close. Time means nothing to him anymore. 

Eventually he realises he’s blinking his eyes, red slowly dissipating from his vision. He flexes stiff fingers, as dried flakes of blood float to the ground. He hears his own voice, subservient yet strong agreeing with whatever Atrocitus is telling him. Jason obeys, fulfilling his orders, fuelled by righteous fury and a small seed of gratitude towards his leader for rescuing him. It takes some time, months he guesses, time is still malleable to him, although it grows more distinct the longer he’s a Red Lantern, but the heat cools, at first slowly but then rapidly, solidifying around everything inside him as the unending rage turns icy and focused, directed towards the Guardians and the Green Lanterns Corps for what they’d done to him. And Dick, _Dick Fucking Grayson_ , his failed former mentor, in particular. He hates like he’s never hated before. Hates like he never thought possible. Not the hate of his childhood, when he burned with anger at those who’d hurt his mother, but a pure violent hate almost as true as love can be. Inch by inch he regains control of himself as he freezes in the clarity of his hate.

Pressing his hand against the magazine in his pocket, Jason vows that Grayson will pay for abandoning him.

***

It’s taken a full year since Jason ‘woke’ up from being feral to gain enough independence and autonomy to take off from under Atrocitus’s feet to stalk down where Grayson is hiding. Jason’s tracked him down to some backwater planetary system that’s been invaded by the Manhunters. The Green Lantern Corps have been called in to try and restore order and there’s a huge space battle going on with Lanterns and Manhunters clashing everywhere.

Jason hangs back at the edge of the battle, letting his ring scan for Grayson and trying to avoid being spotted by any Green Lanterns he used to know. It takes a while, but he does track him down, and Jason creeps around the edges of the skirmish getting closer and closer to Grayson. He waits until a Manhunter gets close and then he cuts through the Manhunter to suckerpunch Grayson hard in the stomach. Grayson bends over his fist and Jason puts all of his energy into flying them out and away from the battle as far and fast as he can.

Jason pushes hard, not paying the blindest bit of attention to where he’s taking them. Grayson recovers enough that he jerks in Jason’s grasp, hand coming up ready to use his ring to break himself free. Jason lets go of him with one hand, closing his fist over Grayson’s, cutting off his ring before he can even begin to build a construct, squeezing down until Grayson cries out in pain. Jason headbutts Grayson as hard as he can, and Grayson cries out again before going limp in his grasp.

Jason keeps going, flying past solar systems and clouds of space dust until he feels they’ve gone far enough. A planet with huge red orange oceans comes up before him, and Jason aims for it. They hurtle through space, and Jason’s ring pulses, indicating that the charge is running low. Jason ignores it, aiming for the ocean, and using his forcefield to break the surface in front of them, avoiding the problem of breaking their bones on the surface tension of the sea and they drop like a stone in the burning water. Jason hauls Dick in his grip, kicking his legs hard to propel them up towards the air but the water’s thicker than he was expecting. Jason’s head breaks the surface of the burning sea and he looks around for somewhere to land. 

***

NOW:

“I needed a five fucking minute break, Dick! Shit, I took the damn ring off to just take a breath and it flew off. Like it couldn’t wait to get away from me. IT LEFT ME TO FUCKING DIE. Then everything went to hell and I nearly goddamned burned to death. I looked up and a fucking red ring _saved_ me.” Jason yells, spittle flying as he rocks forward, looking at Dick’s pale white, drawn face. Dick’s silent, unmoving and Jason turns away, staring out into the dark.

***

They’ve been walking all the morning, not talking since Jason’s last outburst, and sometime after ‘lunch’ the expansive empty plane of the desert gives way to a sheer cliff, at least 500 feet high. It’s so wide that there’s no way around it, up is the only way available to them if they want to make the pick-up point. They’ve got no gear to help them climb, and while the cliff face has enough foot and hand holds to make climbing possible, it’s a long way to climb unaided.

“You going to be ok?” Dick breaks the silence, looking worried and staring up at the cliff.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Jason frowns at Dick, irritated at the implication that Jason’s somehow not up to the task. 

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you’re paler than a corpse and shakier than jello right now?” Dick turns to look at him, gaze flicking down from Jason’s pale and sweaty face to the tremor in his hands.

“Fuck you.” Jason snarls, shoving his foot onto a hold and lifting himself up to grab a hold with his hands.

“You wish. Also, I get to be worried about you. So, don’t snap at me for saying so.” Dick says, forcefully while finding his own holds. “Not everything is an attack, you know.”

“Worry about yourself. If you fall, then we’re both fucked.” Jason says, searching for a higher hand hold, eyes focused upward.

“I can worry about the both of us.” Dick counters. “To your right.” Jason blinks, and sure enough just to his right there’s a good hold.

“You’re gonna be like this the entire way up, aren’t you?” Jason sighs. 

“Oh no, now that I’ve got a captive audience I plan on performing the entire back catalogue of the Beatles.” Dick grins, jumping upwards like a damn mountain goat. Jason wants to smack him.

“Firstly, if you do that, I will deliberately let go once I get to a height that’ll allow for terminal velocity,” Jason huffs, climbing after Dick at a slower pace. “Secondly, if this climb takes long enough for the entire back catalogue, then... fuck, I don’t know, we’re probably already dead and in hell.” 

“Ah, that’s my Jason, always refusing to see the bright side on any given situation!” Dick laughs.

“Again, fuck you, _Dickiebird_.” Jason hopes the smile threatening at the corners of his mouth isn’t as visible as he thinks it probably is. Dick doesn’t respond, but he does start singing ‘Here Comes the Sun’. 

The climb is long and slow, and several rocks get dislodged from the cliff face as the rise up. They’re only about a third of the way up when they catch their breath on a small ledge. It’s just big enough for the two of them to sit with their legs in front of them, and after some water and another Space Carrot and a few minutes to digest what they’ve just eaten, they start climbing again.

Jason watches Dick monkey up the rock face, glaring up at his retreating form. Apparently Dick took his earlier words to heart, and it leaves Jason feeling strangely lonely seeing him so far away. Dick pauses, hanging from one hand and twists to look down to Jason, expression flitting from enjoyment to worry to a tentative smile and back to worry again. Jason takes that as his cue to speed up his own climbing. He catches up with him after a few minutes of Dick hanging from the cliff by just his hands. Dick has insane grip strength to do that, and Jason would be jealous if he had the energy to spare. 

They reach another ledge and take another break, Dick humming that same song again, while Jason leans his head back and closes his eyes, trying to catch his breath. They’ve been climbing for a good few hours, and the tremors in his hands have only got worse. Every time Jason opens his eyes he sees Dick sending him worried glances. 

“Jason... Are you sure you’re okay?” Dick eventually blurts out.

“Do I look okay?” Jason tries to keep his voice even, but his frustration bleeds through. “There’s nothing we can do about it up here.”

“We could stop for the night here...” Dick trails off, seeing the look of fury on Jason’s face.

“Hell no. We’ve made it around two thirds of the way, I’m not stopping here!” Jason says, stabbing at the air forcefully. “I got enough determination to keep going. The last thing I want is to get trapped on a ledge here with the sun going down and being forced to spend the night.”

“If you’re sure you want to keep going, we should make a move.” Dick says quietly, frown still present on his face, and Jason wants to punch it off, or kiss it, or he doesn’t even know anymore. Dick’s so confusing, and he can’t waste the energy to figure it out, not right now anyway. 

“Yeah, move your annoyingly perfect ass already, Grayson.” Jason idly pushes at him, catching his shoulder and it feels so nostalgic that Jason can’t breathe for a long terrifying second. Dick beams at him, and his heart clenches painfully to go along with his already constricted lungs.

“You think my ass is perfect? Oh my.” Dick snorts, eyes sparkling happily for the first time since they arrived on this planet.

“Yeah, yeah. You’re pretty, you know it, I know it, silicon based crystalline beings from Barrio III know it. Shut up and climb, Dickiebird.” Jason scoffs, flexing stiff fingers and taking a deep breath before pulling himself up to a handhold to tackle the last third of the cliff. It feels like it takes centuries to make it to the top, Dick pulls Jason over the edge, flopping onto his back, one hand over the pocket with the magazine inside, breathing hard.

***

They take shelter in a cave for the night. It’s small, maybe four metres deep and two high. Big enough for two grown men to stretch out comfortably with a fire inside the mouth enough to be protected from the wind or the glass rain that reappeared mere minutes after Dick got the fire going. (Turns out he has a lighter and is using the food wrappings as kindling.) Jason’s sitting against the side of the cave, watching the flames and wondering how the hell the fire’s purifying the air from the rain enough that they’re not choking on the toxic fumes the way he did the last time he was caught in the rain.

Dick’s resting next to him, shifting uncomfortably. Jason glares at him, irritated. He can see that Dick’s gearing up to say something, shifting through his words, trying to pick the ones he thinks will upset Jason the least.

“For fuck’s sake, Grayson. Just say whatever it is you want to say. Your fidgeting makes me want to smash your skull in with a rock.” Jason snarls, fingers itching for something to squeeze, like a throat.

“I... It’s just... you told me your story. I think I should tell you mine.” Dick says, hesitance written all over his body.

“So tell it.” Jason says, returning his gaze to the fire.

“You’re not going to like it. _I_ don’t like it.” Dick shifts closer to Jason, tentatively resting a hand on Jason’s shoulder. Jason’s too tired to shrug it off, and he knows it’s a mistake when Dick’s suddenly hugging him. Dick’s strong arms are wrapped around his middle, his head resting on Jason’s chest, as if listening for his heartbeat.

“Dick...” Jason starts to warn him, arms lifted up, hovering between shoving him away and holding him tight.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. But if I look at you, I won’t be able to get this out.” Dick says, voice thick with incipient tears. Jason sighs heavily and despite himself, his left hand comes to rest on the crown of Dick’s head, gently stroking the messy hair that badly needs a cut.

“Well, out with it then.” Jason tries to keep his voice hard and uncaring, and mostly succeeds.

“You remember the call Bruce gave me that night, right?” Dick begins.

***

FIVE YEARS AGO:

“Jason, come on, I didn’t mean it like that. You know I didn’t.” Dick feels torn between his family back on Earth and Jason. Hopefully by the time he comes back, Jason will have forgiven him. “Look, you’ve got this covered here. You’re doing great, and I’ll be back in a day or two, a week _max_ , I promise? Okay?”

“Sure, whatever you say, Dickie. I don’t need you here. Go.” Jason says, furious, dismissive and clearly lying. Dick nods helplessly instead of saying all the things he wants to, and powers up his forcefield to take off to the sky. He can feel Jason’s eyes boring holes into him as he watches Dick fly off.

***

The trip to Earth is short and uneventful. Dick arrives in the Batcave in the early hours of the morning, hovering to a stop by the computers. He assumes Alfred must be in bed, and as the car is nowhere to be seen that Bruce is still on patrol.

“Oh my god, it’s really you!” A young voice calls out from behind him, and Dick twists in mid-air to find the voice’s owner. “Wow! I’m so excited to be training with you, Mr Grayson, I can’t even!”

“Who are you? Where’s Batman? He said there was an emergency.” Dick stares at the kid, nonplussed. 

“Oh! I’m Tim. Tim Drake? The new Robin? Bru-Batman said you were going to train me...” The kid, Tim, says, eyes wide and enthusiasm barely cooled by Dick’s indifference.

“Okay. Tim, right?” Dick waits for the boy’s nod. “Where’s Bruce? I dropped everything to get here for an emergency. And no offence, but training you really doesn’t qualify.” Dick tries to keep a polite smile on his face, but his temper is rising. If there really isn’t an emergency then it’s clearly not the kid’s fault.

“Um. He should be back by now. And um, there weren’t any emergencies when he sent me back from patrol earlier, so, um...” Tim trails off, clearly unsure what else to say.

“Great. Just _peachy_.” Dick says, sarcasm practically dripping from his words and Tim flinches. Not much, but just enough for Dick to see. “Alright, I’m going to go find him and... well, I don’t really know, but it won’t be pretty.”

“Oh. Ok. Um. Should I wait up?” Tim asks, eyes still wide and so young it’s almost painful to see. Dick’s saved from answering by the faint rumbling of a vehicle coming along the road in the cave. The car pulls up and Bruce exits in a dramatic flap of cape that has Dick rolling his eyes. If Bruce thinks he’s getting the first word in then he’s sorely mistaken.

“What the hell, Bruce? You call me up when I’m on a mission, when I’m involved in really important peace negotiations, claiming there’s an emergency and I come back to _this_?” Dick flings his arm out, gesturing at the entire cave.

“Tim needs training. He’s Robin now.” Bruce turns away from Dick and stalks over to the computers. Apparently he thinks the conversation is over now.

“Are you kidding me?” Dick yells, and Tim flinches visibly this time. “I thought you were dying! I thought maybe there’d been a full break out in Arkham! You just want me to train the kid? Jesus, Bruce, I can come back at any time to do that!” Bruce says nothing, tapping away at the computer like Dick hadn’t even spoken. Dick’s about to walk over there and force him to talk, but he spots Alfred out of the corner of his eye. He looks old and tired, standing at the bottom of the stairs down into the cave in pyjamas and his dressing gown. 

“Perhaps we could save this conversation for the morning, Master Dick?” Alfred walks over to him, resting a hand on his shoulder. “It is quite late and both you boys should be in bed. I promise there is time to hash out arrangements later on.” Dick can’t keep his anger up in the face of Alfred’s firm hospitality.

“Honestly, Alfred, I should be getting back... I kind of dropped everything to get here.” Dick says, wincing as he recalls Jason’s pissed off and resigned look.

“Stay the night, what’s left of it, at least? You shouldn’t be flying all over the cosmos on no sleep, young man. That’s how accidents happen.” Alfred says, not about to take no for an answer.

“But I really have to get back in the morning.” Dick sighs, nodding as Alfred’s hand helps turn him towards the stairs.

“Of course. I’ll make you a good breakfast.” Alfred pats him on the shoulder, smiling warmly. “It really is very good to see you, Master Dick.”

“You too, Alfie. You too.” Dick says, reaching the stairs and beginning to climb them.

“Now, off to bed, the both of you.” Alfred says, sending Tim running with teenage energy up the stairs, past Dick.

***

Dick really wants to fly off after the delicious as ever breakfast, but between the combined might of Tim’s puppy dog eyes and Alfred’s slight downturn of his lips, the most obvious sign of sadness Dick’s ever seen Alfred give, he ends up training Tim for the morning. It’s not like he _minds_ training the kid, it’s just that the timing is about the worst it could be.

He only means to spend an hour or so with the new Robin, but somehow the basic flips and falls and holds on the training mats in the cave turns into two, then three hours, and then Alfred is insisting that he at least have lunch before he flies off. Dick’s torn between guilt at not getting back to work and Jason and guilt for not spending enough time with his family recently. It’s a difficult position to be in, made even harder by Bruce’s refusal to understand that being a Green Lantern is a genuine and valid job and not just Dick going off to have space adventures and fun on any planet that isn’t Earth.

So he has lunch, getting to know Tim a little more. At twelve, he’s eight years younger than Dick, he likes playing MMO’s and photography, he’s thinking of asking a girl in his class out, and his parents died in the last six months. Tim eventually lets slip that he’d been there that night when Dick’s parents had died. Dick had had to excuse himself to the bathroom for a few minutes after that. He’d stared into the mirror, asking himself what the hell he was doing until he’d splashed ice cold water onto his face and gone out to brave dessert.

He’s all set to fly back to Racxkalo when Alfred hands him the phone and despite himself he gets drawn into catching up with Donna, Roy and the rest of the Titans. By the time he remembers himself, three hours have gone by, and the sun is setting in the winter sky. 

He says goodbye to Alfred in the kitchen, managing to get a quick but heartfelt hug in and a promise to bring Jason with him next time, before he heads down to the cave for a distinctly chilly farewell from Bruce and a much warmer one from Tim. Dick likes the kid, he decides, and has a few ideas about coming home more often to train him.

And then his ring sends a direct order from the Guardians for him to return to Oa immediately.

***

It takes as long as it ever does to get to Oa, but with a vaguely worded summons preying on his mind, it feels like it takes twice the time it normally does. As Dick walks through the halls of the Guardians headquarters, the sinking feeling he’s had since the summons worsens. Dick thinks he must be in real trouble, given how all the Lanterns he walks past quickly turn away, or are suddenly deeply interested in the bare walls surrounding them.

Dick takes a deep breath and tries to brace himself for whatever’s coming to him. He deserves it after abandoning Jason. He’s not, however, prepared for two pounds of fur to come flying at him full tilt. At first he thinks that Ch’p is going to lay the smackdown on him, only to realise that the squirrel is in fact clinging on to his shoulder and crying?

That sinking feeling has sunk down as low as it can go, burrowing into his bones as Dick realises that something truly terrible has happened. Dick lifts a hand to cradle Ch’p to him, thumb stroking gently down the squirrel’s back. Dick walks towards the audience room, gaining speed until he nearly crashes into the lantern unfortunate enough to turn the corner at the same time as him.

“Whoa! Slow down, buddy- aw, crap. Grayson... I’m sorry.” Guy Gardner says, big hands resting on Dick’s biceps to steady him.

“It’s fine, Guy. Look I’ve got to get to the Guardians, we can chat later, yes?” Dick says, already dismissing the other man from his thoughts. Guy tightens his grip on Dick’s arms, and Dick jolts as he tries to walk away, but can’t.

“I know, Grayson. But... damn it, I know how the Guardians’ll tell you, and well, it should come from one of us. I was hoping Stewart would have found you first, but I guess I’ll have to do.” Guy frowns and Dick stares at him impatiently.

“Tell me what?” Dick steps back and Guy lets go of his arms to let him have some distance.

“A ring came back to Oa. Without it’s Lantern.” Guy pauses, letting Dick process that. The only time a ring comes back to Oa without it’s bearer is when the Lantern has died. It’s never easy to hear one of the Corps is dead, and Dick closes his eyes for a heartbeat or two before opening them to see Guy’s awkward and unhappy face. “Grayson. The ring was Todd’s. We’ve checked. Racxkalo’s a wasteland now. We don’t know exactly what happened... but, Todd’s gone. He’s dead. I’m sorry, Grayson.”

Dick’s first instinct is to deny it. It can’t be Jason, he was just with him yesterday... but, no one would lie to him about this. Ch’p sobbing away on his shoulder is proof this is real. It’s only through force of will that Dick’s knees don’t go from under him.

He walks numbly to the Guardians’ audience room. Listens to them proclaim that Jason is gone. Walks out with all the other Lanterns, barely taking in anything. He sees Chaselon and Larvox over in a corner, sitting quietly with their heads bowed. Dick walks over, and they look up. Dick opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. Instead he scoops Ch’p from his shoulder, gently placing him in Larvox’s hands and then leans forward and hugs them both. Chaselon makes a quiet squeaking sound, and Dick lets go of them, turning on his heel and quickly walking away. 

As soon as he’s out of sight, Dick flies to his room, shutting the door firmly after him. All around him are signs of Jason. His spare shirt on the floor, his book by the bed, the picture he liked so much hanging on the wall. The musical instrument he always called a Space Guitar. The wind chime that he made one night, as an apology after a fight about something so stupid and petty that Dick can’t even remember what it was about. Dick collapses onto the bed, face down. The sheets still carry the faintest hint of the both of them, and Jason’s pillow still smells like his shampoo. Dick hadn’t kissed Jason goodbye. He’s never going to forgive himself for that. Dick curls up around it and buries his face into it as he cries and screams, all alone in their room.

***

NOW:

“You know the worst part of it?” Dick mumbles through his tears. “I didn’t get reprimanded. Nobody blamed me. I had to live with the guilt, knowing I’d left you to be killed, and no one seemed to care. They were all too happy that I was still alive.” Dick pulls out of Jason’s arms, lifting his head up and pulling his t-shirt up to wipe the tears away. It’s times like this that Jason’s reminded of Dick’s flaws: he has an explosive temper, he can be overly bossy, and he’s an ugly crier. Well, the last one’s not so much a flaw, but it does serve to remind Jason that Dick’s only human and not actually as perfect as everyone says. Jason doesn’t know what to say to Dick’s confession, so he says nothing.

“Do... do you think you can forgive me?” Dick whispers, voice trembling and thin. Jason really doesn’t know if he can. Dick leaving him wasn’t malicious, he knows that, but it still changed Jason’s life irrevocably. Forgiveness is not a trait that Red Lanterns tend to display. 

“Maybe. Ask me again when I’ve had time to deal with it.” Jason says, low and entirely too calm for how confused he feels right now. He might not want Dick to be in pain, but the rage he feels hasn’t been soothed at all, and really? This is not the sort of thing that can be or should be forgiven with a quick apology and some tears. 

Dick nods, leaning back against the wall and looking as tired and Jason feels. Dick’s apparently feeling braver than Jason thought as Dick leans against Jason’s arm. Jason reaches up and roughly shoves Dick’s head down onto his shoulder.

“Jason?” Dick sounds confused but he stays still. That’s good enough for Jason right now.

“Go the fuck to sleep, Dickiebird.” Jason sighs. Dick makes a noise of agreement, closing his eyes and trying to slip into sleep. Jason stares into the fire, mind racing a mile a minute with unwanted thoughts he just can’t get rid of.

***

They come across a wide ravine sometime in the early afternoon. Jason’s tired from walking all the morning, although that is perhaps a little disingenuous, he woke up tired, and even after breakfast and later, a walking lunch, he’s still tired. He plods along after Dick, who seems overly energetic in comparison, having had the same amount of sleep, food and exercise. Dick stops walking a little too close to the edge for Jason’s comfort. Jason can see down to the river running at the bottom of the ravine from several paces back from Dick. The ravine is easily 300 metres wide and at least that deep too.

The river carries that now familiar scent of liquid glass, which rules out any attempt to climb down and wade or swim across. Jason sits down while Dick goes through the pack, although for what Jason doesn’t know, there’s no rope in there. Eventually Dick pulls his head out of the bag with an ‘A-ha!’ sound, turning to grin at Jason. Jason closes his eyes for a long moment instead of asking the question that Dick’s waiting for him to ask. He hears Dick sigh, hears the rustling of his clothes and then there’s a gentle hand on his shoulder, startling him, despite the fact he should have known it was coming.

“Hey, you still with me?” Dick says, crouching down beside Jason, hand still resting on Jason’s shoulder.

“Unfortunately.” Jason snarks, not opening his eyes.

“Good, ‘cause I need you aware and with me for this to work.” Dick says, confident and reassuring. Jason lets out a long slow breath, and forces himself to open his heavy eyes.

“And what, exactly, is this?” Jason says, forcing himself to push Dick’s hand off, it’s a weak push and Jason files that knowledge away to worry about later.

“Luckily for us, I happen to still have a grapnel gun in my jacket pocket.” Dick smiles widely, and Jason gives him a blank look. “Oh right, you don’t know what that is! It’s what Batman and I used to swing around Gotham. It’s got enough line to get across the ravine.”

“Great, so what do you need me for?” Jason asks, plaintively and hating himself for it.

“Well, the line’ll get across, but we’re not on higher ground here, so we’ll end up swinging into the ravine.” Dick uses his hands to illustrate in the air. “The gun’ll take us up to the top of the ravine, but I’ve only got one gun, so I need you to hold one to me, and stay awake while we swing.”

“I’m not going to pass out, Dick. I’m tired, not... hurt or whatever.” Jason snaps, his voice coming out far softer than intended.

“Ok, ok, good. Because you’re damn heavy, Jay, and if you pass out I can’t guarantee I won’t drop you.” Dick says, and Jason glares at him, but well. Dick has a point; Jason’s pretty built and taller than Dick. If he’s dead weight then Dick won’t be able to carry him.

“Fine, let’s do this.” Jason rolls to his knees, getting up slowly. Everything is taking so much more effort than he remembers it taking before. “Wait... you had this fucking gizmo the entire time and made us _climb that fucking cliff_? What the fuck, Grayson?”

“I, er, I forgot I had it till now?” Dick says sheepishly, and Jason narrows his eyes at him. He doesn’t believe that for a second. “Alright, alright, I didn’t think I’d be able to convince you to hold on to me to go up the cliff.” Jason clenches his jaw and looks away, because Dick’s right. Jason wouldn’t have agreed to that. He’s only agreeing now, because his only other choice is staying there and dying slowly of thirst, assuming the rain doesn’t get him first. 

Dick walks to the edge of the ravine and shoots the gun. The line arcs up in the air and then comes down on the other side, attaching itself to a large boulder. Dick tugs hard on the line to make sure it’s secure, and then waves Jason over. Jason huffs, but goes over to him.

“So, how am I supposed to hold on to you?” Jason lifts his arms and steps closer to Dick.

“Around my shoulders? Might be worth putting your legs around my waist too...” Dick says, trailing off with a faint dusting of pink across his cheekbones. 

“Yeah, that’s never gonna happen, _Dick_.” Jason spits out, wrapping his arms around Dick’s shoulders, bringing them flush together. Jason’s mouth is right against the top of Dick’s ear and he gets the insane urge to bury his teeth into the cartilage and tear it off. He starts when Dick slides his arm around his waist.

“Ok, here goes nothing.” Dick says, shuffling them closer to the edge and then over.

They swing down, although for the first ten or so seconds it feels like falling, and then they’re crashing into the side of the ravine, Dick letting out a grunt as their combined weight pulls at his shoulder, and Jason’s back takes the brunt of contact between Dick and the rock. Jason doesn’t make a sound, but his breath leaves him in a sudden rush. They dangle there, Dick waiting for Jason to start breathing again, and Jason can distantly hear a panicked voice yelling his name. After the first painful inhale, breathing becomes easier and then Dick hits a button and they’re winched up the side of the ravine, far quicker than Jason expected.

They make it to the top and over the edge while Jason’s focusing on pulling oxygen into his abused lungs. Dick pats at his face, and Jason opens his eyes, wondering when he’d screwed them shut.

“God, Jason. Don’t do that to me. I thought... I... Are you ok?” Dick looks as pale and shaken as Jason feels. Jason feels a stirring of panic as his hand flies to his pocket. “It’s still there, whatever you always check in your pocket? It’s still there.” Dick moves a hand down to Jason’s internal pocket.

“I’m fine, stop your goddamn fussing.” Jason pushes Dick away, sitting up and taking a deep stinging breath. “Let’s get going.” Dick stares at him, and Jason thinks Dick’s about to yell, but instead Dick gets to his feet and starts walking away. Jason watches him go, and wonders why he’s so annoyed that he actually got Dick to do what he wanted. 

***

Dick’s calmed down enough to keep shooting Jason worried looks as Jason huffs and wheezes, pausing every so often to not quite bend over and rest. Jason wraps an arm around his middle, feeling his ribs, they’re tender but they don’t scream at him when he presses down, so they don’t appear to be broken or fractured. Dick makes a frustrated grunt and grabs Jason’s arm, forcing it over his shoulder and keeping his grip on Jason’s wrist. His other arm goes low around Jason’s waist, and Jason wants to shove him away, but truthfully it’s much easier to walk with Dick holding him up.

“You know, I always meant to ask.” Dick starts saying, pausing to navigate around a dip in the barren rock of the road they’re walking along.

“Ask what?” Jason says when Dick doesn’t continue. Jason’s keeping his eyes on the horizon, even though there’s literally nothing to see except bare rock in all directions.

“Well, it’s kind of stupid, and you probably won’t tell me, but...” Dick shifts his grip on Jason’s arm. “What’s in your pocket? You’ve always checked it, ever since I first met you.”

Jason sighs, feeling his ribs protesting at the movement. He debates telling Dick. It’s somewhat embarrassing, and possibly a little weird, and that’s the thing that makes him not want to tell Dick. If he thinks it’s weird, Jason might lose what little spark of that indefinable something that he managed to hang on to through all the time he was Atrocitus’ feral puppet.

“I mean, I didn’t ask before. I was always waiting for you to tell me. I wanted you to be comfortable enough to tell me.” Dick says softly, looking down and they trudge on. It’s that more than anything that makes the decision for Jason.

“Ok, hold up. I can’t walk and show you.” Jason’s voice is breathy and Jason shoves the worry that something’s truly wrong with him down in favour of reaching inside his jacket with his free arm once Dick halts to a stop. Jason fumbles with the magazine, fingers feeling clumsy and maybe even a little numb. He hasn’t actually taken it out from this jacket since he first put it in. He pulls it out of the pocket and holds it out, flattening the lengthwise fold so that the cover can be seen.

“Gotham Teen Beat. Oh. Oh my god. I can’t believe I forgot that terrible interview!” Dick laughs softly. “I don’t think I answered even one of those questions truthfully. How the hell did you get a copy of that?” Dick looks up at Jason, and Jason swallows, because they’re close enough to kiss if Jason turns his head towards Dick.

“Last thing I bought on Earth before I picked up the magic space bling.” Jason shrugs as best he can with his arm around Dick. “My sixteenth birthday present to myself.”

“You’ve really had this all that time? Wow, Jay. I mean I don’t know what to say.” Dick says with a soft smile that Jason can’t bear to look at. “That’s really sweet of you to keep it all these years.” Jason grunts and folds it before shoving it back in his pocket. Jason starts walking and Dick jolts before falling into step with him.

After a few minutes of walking, Dick’s biting his lip and it irritates Jason because it means Dick’s thinking of doing something, and Jason doesn’t have the energy to do anything other than walk now that his most private secret has been told to the one person who would care about it. 

“Hey.” Dick whispers with a grin. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“There’s no need to whisper. We are literally the only living sentient beings on this planet.” Jason grumbles.

“Alright, fine. I’ll tell you a secret.” Dick says as if Jason hadn’t spoken at all. “I still wear that necklace you bought me on Racxkalo. I don’t think I’ve taken it for more than half an hour at most since you gave it to me.” Jason doesn’t say anything to that. He doesn’t have the words. Instead he squeezes Dick’s arm, a silent thank you for telling him.

***

Their pace has slowed to a crawl by the time they make it to the small village that is their pick-up point. Dick helps Jason over to the covered well in the centre of the village. If Jason didn’t know better he’d say that they’d just done a huge loop to get back to where they’d started, because the two villages are eerily identical. While Jason slides down the side of the well to sit on the ground and try to convince his eyes to stay open, Dick hooks the upturned bucket onto the rope of the well and lowers it down.

There’s the reassuring splash of water when the bucket reaches the bottom, and when Dick pulls it back up he lifts it to his mouth and takes a huge gulp before checking it’s safe. Jason wants to yell at him for being so stupid, but when Dick offers him the bucket, Jason does the exact same thing. At least Jason has the excuse that Dick’s clearly fine and not dying from drinking that water. Jason drops the bucket, forcing his eyes up to the pale sky. Anytime now, a Green Lantern will be arriving to recharge Dick’s ring and whisk Jason away, probably to lock him up. If he’s going to take down Dick he’s going to have to do it now.

Jason looks over to Dick, taking in his profile, the line of his jaw, how everything about his face is softened by the outgrown haircut. He looks at his body, the lithe acrobatic muscles he has and how even now he can’t stay completely still. He stares until his eyes hurt from not blinking, drying out in the desert air. Even thinking of moving is exhausting. He’s not going to attack Dick. He can admit that now. Ever since he didn’t drop that rock on Dick’s head he’s not once even tried to actually hurt him physically. He honestly doesn’t want to.

Dick looks over and sees him openly staring, and that painful soft smile graces his face again. Jason can’t look away. He can’t move, he doesn’t even want to risk breathing. He wants this moment to last forever. Dick leans in, one hand reaching up to trace along Jason’s jaw, slipping back to tangle in the strands of hair at Jason’s neck. It’s a soft, almost chaste kiss. The light pressure of Dick’s chapped lips against Jason’s own. The heat of his breath brushes gently against Jason’s cheek. The slight curve of Dick’s lips as he smiles when Jason kisses back. This, this is what Jason wants to remember. This one perfect moment at the end of everything.

Because now Jason can admit what he’s known since he saw his ring run out of charge. He’s not getting off this rock alive. This is the goodbye he wanted.

As everything starts spinning away from him, getting more and more distant and quiet, the only thing he wishes is that Dick wasn’t frantically yelling his name with such obvious pain in his voice.

***

Jason floats in darkness. Everything he’s ever known is so far away. But in the echoing black, he can hear the faintest sounds of voices. The words wash over him with no meaning, but he finds himself trying to listen anyway.

“--ason! Please don—“

“—can’t lose y—“

“—ot again. Open your ey—“

“—od, Guy, help m—“

“—otta ask, Grayson, is this guy even worth sav—“

“—WEAR, GARDNER, IF YOU DON’T HEL—“

It’s quiet for long enough that Jason thinks everything has truly ended. That this is all he deserved after everything he’s done. And then he hears it again.

“—alm down, man. We’re nearly ther—“

“—omise you’ll take care of hi—“

“—ill. But I just wanna state for the record, this is a terrible ide—“

“—ope you’re worth thi—“

There’s nothing again. For a long while there’s nothing. Jason floats, not content, but something close to it.

“—ook you long enough, Grays—“

“—hut up and help me, we need to charge his ri—“

“—oes he need to say an oath? We are really fuc—“

And then a searing, soul piercing red washes over him. Jason feels charred by it, buffered and buffeted in the waves of rage. The bone deep exhaustion lifts, driven away by the anger and revitalising Jason from the inside out. Jason gets the distinct impression of MINE.

Jason opens his eyes to see two Green Lanterns in front of him, one holding a Green Lantern battery and one a Red Lantern battery, almost protectively in front of him. Jason roars, about to attack, until the face of one of the Lanterns swims into perfect focus. It’s Dick. Dick, who he loves and hates in equal measure. Dick, who he just spent the last three days with. Dick, who still loves him. Dick, who he finally after five years kissed again and remembered what happiness feels like.

Dick, holding a Red Lantern battery. Dick, who must have snuck into the Red Lantern base to steal a Red Lantern battery, because Jason knows that Red Lantern batteries are not allowed to leave the base on Ysmault. Jason, Dick and the other Green Lantern, and now Jason recognises him as Guy Gardner, are not on Ysmault. The realisation that Dick just risked his life to save Jason crashes over him, cooling the rage until Jason can form words again.

“Dick. What have you done?” Jason whispers, staring at the red forcefield all around him, watching as it undulates like flames.

“What I had to.” Dick says, sure and confident, even as Gardner stares at him like he’s crazy. “Here, this is yours.” Dick holds the Red Lantern battery out to Jason who takes it without meaning to.

“Oookaaay. Well, I hate to break the band up, but staying here is a bad idea. I’m going back to Oa and pretending I never saw any of this.” Gardner says. “Don’t tell me where you’re going. I don’t want to know.”

“Thanks, Guy. I mean it.” Dick says, slapping Gardner on the shoulder. Gardner flies off with the Green battery and Dick and Jason are left alone again.

“So. What now?” Jason shifts the battery from one hand to another. Going back to Ysmault is unappealing, and Oa is out of the question for Jason. Dick smiles that blinding wide smile, and Jason knows Dick’s got a plan. Jason braces himself for what Dick’s about to say.

“Now? Now we go to Elpis.” Dick reaches out and grabs Jason’s free right hand, lacing their fingers together. Jason gets that impression of MINE again, immediately followed by OURS.

“Elpis... The Blue Lantern base? Why are we going there? Also, we?” Jason grips Dick’s hand tighter without thinking about it.

“Yes, we. I’m not leaving you again, Jason. Not if I can help it.” Dick smiles softly, and Jason’s long forgotten heart skips a beat. “I’ve got friends there. We can stay for a while. Unless you’ve got a better idea?”

“...Elpis it is then.” Jason feels his lips tugging wider, forming into a smile, the way he hasn’t done since the market on Racxkalo. He’s smirked, sure, but smiling is unfamiliar.

They don’t let go of each other’s hands as they hurtle through space. Jason glances over his shoulder and sure enough, there’s Ysmault, getting smaller and smaller as they head towards Elpis. He turns back to look at his hand, fingers curled into a Dick’s, and for a second he thinks he sees a faint colour mixing between his red and Dick’s green forcefield, as their rings fly them away.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hijinx and Shenanigans on Elpis!

On the way to Elpis, Dick tells him about how his relationship with Bruce completely broke down after Racxkalo, and that they’d spent four years not in contact until Dick’d felt ready to try reconciling.

“I mean, I was in contact with Alfred and I went back to Earth a lot, but that trust was gone, you know? I couldn’t trust myself around him after knowing he lied.” Dick says, staring at a nearby nebula as they pass it by. “I was more mad at myself than Bruce, I guess. I wanted to punish myself by punishing _him_. So I cut him off for years. I thought it’d make things better. It really didn’t.”

“It wouldn’t.” Jason nods, tightening his grip on Dick’s hand.

“You aren’t angry about me fixing things with Bruce?” Dick says, looking incredulous as he turns to Jason.

“Why would I be? I mean yeah, your dad was an ass, and lying to you was shitty, but it wasn’t meant maliciously, right? Him lying didn’t have anything to do with _me_. You shoulda come back, but you choose to stay on Earth. That’s on you, and you know it.” Jason says, gently. “So, you’ve both learned from your mistakes?” Jason waits for Dick’s nod before continuing. “Good for him. Good for you.”

“Seriously? I really thought telling you would send you into a rage.” Dick stares at him, blinking in surprise.

“Look, even if you’d been there, Racxkalo woulda still been annihilated. My ring woulda still abandoned me.” Jason says, uncomfortable at having to point out the obvious, mostly because it took him far too long to realise it himself.

“You wouldn’t have become a Red Lantern...” Dick says, frowning before a strange look flickers across his face. He opens his mouth hesitantly, and Jason thinks he’s about to say something else, but instead he pulls Jason in closer, saying nothing. Jason wonders what else he’s afraid to say to him, but that’s a conversation for another time. Dick looks worn out enough from telling him about Bruce that Jason wants to give him as much of a break as he can.

“Maybe not.” Jason agrees, but then again... “And maybe I would’ve anyway, I was nearly outta my mind with anger when the ring showed up. Who knows. Only real difference between you bein’ there, is that you’da known I was alive this whole time.”

“I would have tried to save you, Jay.” Dick says, so sincere and Jason knows that it’s the truth right down to his bones.

“I know.” Jason turns to Dick, smiling softly and trailing his knuckles down Dick’s cheek. Dick reaches up and holds Jason’s hand there for a few long, wonderful moments. Dick leans forward, letting go of his hand, wrapping his arms around Jason. Jason lets him, keeping his body stiff for a tense few seconds until he does the same, pulling Dick in tight until he hears Dick give a whoof of air being squeezed out of him.

They keep flying towards Elpis.

***

It’s been a few days since they arrived on Elpis and Dick and Jason met Saint Walker, Brother Warth and the Blue Lantern from Earth, Stephanie Brown. The Blue Lantern base is smaller than Jason expected, more like a village or a commune than the hugely populated Oa or Ysmault. The main building is hidden behind the huge central Blue Lantern Battery, with smaller stone houses scattered around. Jason assumes that the smaller houses are the individual homes of the Blue Lanterns. Jason and Dick are offered one of the houses furthest away from the main building, and for some reason the distance makes Jason more comfortable. 

Saint Walker takes to training Jason, and despite himself, Jason really enjoys it. It’s not easy, training with him; in fact it reminds Jason of his times chasing Ch’p. Walker seems to defy gravity even without his ring, he’s fast and sneaky, and Jason can barely keep up with him. He only does as well as he does because of all the times he spent chasing Ch’p. It’s essentially a long and energetic game of tag, even if Jason doesn’t want to admit that they’re playing a child’s game to Dick.

“You let your anger control you, and it makes you slow.” Walker tells Jason, not unkindly.

“I’m a dumbass Red Lantern, yeah, yeah, I know.” Jason says, wiping dirt from his face after his last fall.

“Not at all. You revert to instinctive movements when you let your emotions control you, but you are not by any means stupid.” Walker says, darting in and patting Jason on the shoulder, promptly jumping back at least ten metres without even looking.

Jason snarls, more out of habit than any genuine anger, and runs forward to at least get one tag in before they call it a day. He doesn’t manage it, but then again, it took him a good eight tries before he managed to catch Ch’p.

When he’s not training with Saint Walker, or spending time with Dick repairing their relationship, Jason falls into helping Brother Warth with the preparation and cooking of the food for the small community of Blue Lanterns. Brother Warth’s extreme likeness to the Hindu god Ganesh makes it really difficult for Jason to think of him as anything else in his head. It only takes a few days for Jason to accidentally call Brother Warth Ganesh out loud. Once he’s explained the nickname, Warth looks so pleased that Jason ends up using it all the time.

Dick likes hanging out with Warth, Jason’s noticed. Warth tends to spend time in what Jason thinks of the village square, playing his Space Sitar and generally being a peaceful, joyful presence. Jason hasn’t asked, but he thinks that Ganesh reminds Dick of Zitka, the elephant at Haly’s Circus, and Dick’s best friend when he was a small child.

Jason doesn’t know what they talk about, hasn’t interrupted to find out. He thinks it’s good that he and Dick aren’t in each other’s pockets all the time. He knows Dick has plenty of friends, and it’s reassuring to realise that even after the last couple of years, that Dick still wants to make new ones. Dick’s the type of person that needs lots of people around him to care about. Jason can manage with a small loyal few, prefers it that way, in fact.

But it’s Stephanie ‘call me Steph’ Brown he feels the most comfortable with. Partly because the first night they’d been there Steph had invited them over for a movie night.

“Come on guys, we’ve rigged up a really good set up! We’ve got so many dvds to choose from.” Steph enthuses while Dick looks intrigued and Jason looks disinterested. “We have Space Popcorn!”

“Space Popcorn?” Jason perks up. It’s been so long since Jason had popcorn. It’s been even longer since he saw a movie.

“Yes! Well, yeah, ok, it’s actually just regular Earth popcorn I brought with me, but we’re in space.” Steph nods. “So it’s Space Popcorn.” Jason agrees with this logic. Dick looks over at Jason, who gestures at Steph to lead the way. Steph beams, and once they’ve set up the movie and Warth brings the popcorn, movie night begins. Steph expresses horror that Jason’s missed so much pop culture and so persuades Jason to come back the next night to ‘educate’ him on everything he’s missed. Jason half hopes that Dick will rescue him from this ‘education’, but Dick refuses, too amused by the situation.

The other reason he’s most comfortable with Steph is the meditation. Originally, he’d tried sitting still with Saint Walker. While Jason has no trouble staying in one place for extended periods of time, sitting down to meditate just doesn’t work for him. Every time he empties his mind enough to truly relax, his ring sends a pulse of warmth through him, jolting him into the thought that he is unguarded and vulnerable to attack.

One morning, when the need to move is taking hold of his bones, Jason goes for a walk around the complex. He spots Steph doing some sort of incredibly slow martial arts. He wanders over to watch, and Steph smiles at him.

“You want to try?” Steph offers, waving him over. Jason shrugs. Why not try it? He wants to move and this is as good as anything while Dick’s busy elsewhere doing whatever he does when he disappears off out of their hut. Steph shows him some basic moves and Jason picks it up surprisingly fast.

Jason finds the movements relaxing, close enough to fighting that his ring doesn’t send warnings through him. They’re repetitive enough that he doesn’t need to think, and by the end of the session, Jason has a big smile on his face, and a promise to join Steph every morning for silent Tai Chi.

***

They’ve wandered past one of the lakes on a walk, in the hopes that moving will help keep them calm while trying to discuss what they’ll do next in the scheme of things. It’s not really working.

“I know that when a Blue Lantern and a Star Sapphire work together they can remove a Red Lantern’s ring.” Dick says, sounding a little unsure. “Maybe we can find a Star Sapphire who’ll help.”

“But I like being a Red Lantern. I don’t want to stop.” Jason says, clenching and flexing his fingers around his ring, feeling it fit snugly and comfortably.

“...What?” Dick looks flabbergasted. “Jason... I don’t really know how to tell you this, but... Atrocitus was the one who caused Racxkalo to implode. I overheard it on Ysmault.”

“Yeah, I know.” Jason shrugs.

“You _knew_?” Dick stares at him in shock. Jason wonders what the hell he thought life was like on Ysmault that Jason could be unaware of Atrocitus’ worst actions.

“Yeah, he’s done it before. He’ll probably do it again. He doesn’t think anything of destroying a whole planet to get one single Red Lantern.” Jason says, offhandedly, like he doesn’t think it’s the huge problem he knows it actually is.

“I don’t get it. How can you like being a Red Lantern knowing that?” Dick runs his hands through his hair, trying to understand and failing.

“I hate working for Atrocitus. The longer I’m away from him the better I feel. But I like being a Red Lantern, it feels right.” Jason can feel the icy rage at all the injustice in the universe deep in his heart, but right now he’s calm and assured.

“How is this going to work if you stay a Red Lantern... I don’t know what you want from me.” Dick sighs heavily.

“You’re the one who thinks that a Green Lantern and Red Lantern can’t be together.” Jason points out.

“Then what _do_ you want from me, Jason? What the hell else can I do to make it right?” Dick yells, throwing his arms wide in frustration.

“I don’t know, Dick. You don’t need to do anything.” Jason says quietly.

“You want me to throw away my ring? Is that it? Because I will!” Dick tugs off his ring, throwing it hard into the lake.

“Damn, that’d be an ass to find later if you couldn’t call it back to you.” Jason says, feeling a strange sort of calm come over him, staring out over the lake. “You didn’t need to do that. You love being a Green Lantern. You love _flying_.” He turns back to Dick, seeing the stubborn look on his face.

“I do love flying, I do love being a Green Lantern, but I LOVE YOU MORE.” Dick yells, his voice getting louder and louder. Jason’s eyes open wide, because there’s a soft glow coming from directly behind Dick.

“Uh, Dick...” Jason blinks in confusion, raising his hand to point behind Dick. Dick turns around and stares, stepping back automatically.

“Is... Is that here for me?” Dick says, hand reaching out despite himself. Jason’s ring pulses softly, and it’s obvious what the answer to that question is.

“It’s definitely not here for me.” Jason puts his hand on the small of Dick’s back, pushing him to step forward. Dick reaches out and the tip of his finger slips into the ring and out the other side until it’s secure on his finger. The new ring’s forcefield comes up over Dick. Dick smiles, looking radiant and fierce. Dick steps in close and wraps his arms around Jason’s neck. They both turn their heads to follow Dick’s old ring shoot off into the sky back to Oa. 

“I’d say are you sure about this, but there’s no going back now.” Jason says, trying to keep the happiness out of his voice.

“I know. This isn’t going to solve all our problems either.” Dick says, quietly. “You think Saint Walker will send a message to Oa, so they know I’m not dead?” 

“I know. And if he won’t, then I will.” Jason promises.

“So, how’s my new uniform look?” Dick grins, leaning in close. Jason flicks his gaze down, Dick still has the fingerstripes, and while the Green Lantern logo has been replaced, the new one is in the same place on the middle of Dick’s chest. Jason looks down further, and rests his hands on Dick’s hips.

“Well, I like these...” Jason says, rubbing his thumbs along the curved vents along Dick’s hips. “Your boots aren’t green anymore, that’s kinda weird.”

“Aww, they were my signature thing!” Dick teases, tapping the toe of his boot against Jason’s. “Oh and they have heels. Not sure how I feel about that.”

“And yet, I’m still taller than you.” Jason grins back.

“Shut up.” Dick says fondly exasperated, resting his forehead on Jason’s. He brushes his lips up against Jason’s teasing them both, with a wicked grin until Jason pushes forward and kisses him properly. Slipping his hands down a little to get a good grip and relish the feel of having Dick right where Jason wants him. Dick breaks the kiss to laugh, throwing his head back, easy and free.

“You know, you’re gonna get summoned to their base planet, right?” Jason sighs, not looking forward to spending time away from Dick again.

“I promise I’ll come back this time.” Dick says, voice fierce with love. 

“I promise I’ll still be here, this time.” Jason growls, voice dropping low and heavy.

“So, how do you think the Zamarons will deal with the first male star sapphire?” Dick jokes, trying to lighten the situation a little and almost managing.

“I have no idea, but you look great in pink.” Jason grins. “No, seriously, I know you, and you’ll be fine.” Jason kisses him again, long and lingering and oh so sweet. Dick steps back, both hands lingering in Jason’s hair, trailing along his jaw until Dick’s out of reach. Dick nods, powering up his forcefield and taking off to the sky. Jason watches him fly off, calm etched over his face.

***

Jason’s left his little house and is heading towards the main meeting place to hang out with Steph when a small green light comes flying out of the sky and hovers in front of him for a moment. He has just enough time to recognise Ch’p before the Space Squirrel is diving for him, punching him several times and knocking him to the ground before Jason can even think of defending himself.

By the time Steph runs over to check on him, Ch’p has stopped hitting him and climbed up onto his head, alternately patting his hair and tugging on it lightly. (The tugging reminds him of Dick, who has a tendency to do the same thing under very different circumstances, because he has a tendency to do to his lovers what he likes to have done to him, and Dick loves having his hair pulled a lot, especially when Jason has handfuls of his hair in both hands, dragging Dick’s head back from behind while he slams in – no, he can’t let himself think of that while Ch’p is on his head and Steph is standing right there, laughing her ass off and taking way too many photos on her phone.)

“You guys are adorable!” Steph gushes, clicking away. “Does this happen often? Do you get climbed upon by Space Squirrels because they mistake you for a Space Tree?”

“Excuse you, sweetheart, but this is Ch’p.” Jason sniffs. “Ch’p is the best Green Lantern ever, and you should be thankful to be in his presence.” Ch’p chitters in what sounds like agreement, patting Jason’s head and waving in hello to Steph.

“Oh, my mistake.” Steph snorts. “Hello Ch’p, please continue to beat Jason up, it does him good.” Ch’p offers his hand out and Steph raises an eyebrow, but steps forward to shake paws with the little squirrel.

“Hey, we got any Space Nuts? My man Ch’p here probably needs something to eat.” Jason says, sitting up, lifting a hand to hover near Ch’p in case he dislodges him. Steph grins and flies off to the food stores, and by the time she’s come back with a pot of nuts, Jason’s sitting on a nearby rock, idly stroking Ch’p’s tail.  
Jason ends up throwing the Space Nuts up to Ch’p while he sits on Jason’s head. Steph takes even more photos, enthusing over how cute they are and only pausing in documenting Ch’p’s visit when she takes a selfie with them both.

“Just so you know? I’m gonna print so many of these out. I think I’m gonna use them to wallpaper my place!” Steph says, phone still clicking away while Jason makes a face of disgust. Eventually Ch’p comes down from his perch and steals Steph’s phone to flick through her gallery, pointing repeatedly at one photo. “You want a copy of that one, Ch’p?” Ch’p chitters, nodding happily. “You got it, lil buddy!” Jason leans over, checking out the picture Ch’p likes. It’s a really good shot of the two of them, Ch’p looking down at Jason, grabbing a nut out of the air that Jason’s clearly just thrown up to him while Jason has a hint of a smile.

“Steph? Make that two.” Jason says gruffly.

***

A week or so later, right before Movie Night, Chaselon and Larvox visit. Their visit is as unexpected as Ch’p’s, but no less welcome. 

“Lantern Todd! We are very pleased to see you alive.” Chaselon exclaims when he and Larvox land on Elpis.

“Hey Discoball, Larvox.” Jason says, narrowing his eyes as the sunlight reflects off Chaselon right into his face. “How’s it going?”

“It is going fine, Lantern Todd. If you are not busy, may we converse?” Chaselon says, eyes curving into a smile.

“If you want. I mean, we were gonna have an Earth movie night, if you wanted to join...” Jason trails off as Steph appears behind Chaselon and Larvox with a grin that promises trouble for Jason.

“Oh that sounds exciting. We would be honoured to accept.” Chaselon says as Larvox nods vigorously.

“Oooh, have we got more people to educate?” Steph says, walking over. “I’ll make extra Space Popcorn.”

“We would like to try this Space... Popcom. May we join you?” Chaselon looks intrigued.

“Oh, I insist. I’m Steph by the way.” Steph waves them into the house that’s been turned into a little movie theatre.

“I am Chaselon, and this is Larvox. Thank you for inviting us, Lantern Steph!” Chaselon and Larvox hesitantly enter the house, taking in the large screen that’s wired up in the most complicated way Jason’s ever seen, to not only a dvd player, but a PS4. There are shelves lining the house, filled with books, dvds, cds and PS4 games. It’s pretty much an entertainment paradise. Jason, when he’s not being dragged in for movie night (which is about half movies and half gaming, really) tends to only go in there for the books. 

“Ok, I have to ask. Are all your friends this adorable?” Steph giggles, making Jason grimace, because well, it’s true.

“Yes. Yes, they are.” Jason grumbles, shoving her inside. “So make extra Space Popcorn. Because they’re adorable and badass and deserve buttery Space Popcorn.”  
Steph chooses Grease. Jason complains, but once Steph points out that Jason could have been a T-bird, Chaselon and Larvox look so excited to see what Jason’s earth life could have been like that Jason backs down. They make it through most of the film to the school dance scene before Steph points out the obvious.

“Oh hey, Chaselon, it’s you.” Steph says, shoving a handful of Space Popcorn in her face.

“I do not understand, Lantern Brown. How is that me?” Chaselon waves an arm at the screen.

“It’s a discoball, that’s why. S’what you look like, dude.” Jason grabs a handful of popcorn for himself before Steph eats it all. 

“I look like that you? I am so shiny? Thank you, Lantern Todd, Lantern Brown. That has made me very happy!” Chaselon sparkles and Larvox smiles as best someone without a mouth can. “Mother always said I was the dullest of her children.”

While the Green Lanterns are distracted by the movie, Jason leans over and holds out a fist to Steph. She grins and for a long moment, Jason thinks she’s going to leave him hanging. She lifts a hand to bump his and Jason grins.

“Good job, kid.” Jason says, ruffling her hair with his popcorn greased hand. He’s looking forward to her howls of indignation later, once she realises what he’s done.

***

Dick returns without warning one day a few weeks later. Jason only knows he’s back when he walks into his little house to see Dick lying on the bed, waiting for him. He springs to his feet when he sees Jason standing in the doorway, bowl of food in his hand. 

“I’m back.” Dick says, almost shyly, which is so unlike Dick that Jason finds it adorable. “Like I promised.”

“I’m still here.” Jason grins. “Like _I_ promised. Look, we’re doing better than last time already.” Dick snorts, and takes a few steps forward to pull the bowl out of Jason’s grip and set it down on a nearby table.

“Looks like.” Dick steps in closer, leaning in for a kiss. Jason leans back and Dick blinks, a hurt look flitting across his face.

“Honestly, you Star Sapphires. Walking unannounced into a man’s house, taking his Space porridge and expecting kisses without even asking. Rude.” Jason grins, lunging forward and kissing Dick on the mouth before he can respond.

“Ok, seriously, you don’t need to call it Space porridge, just porridge is fine!” Dick mumbles into the kiss. “Oh and by the way, you were right.” Jason pulls back and looks at him quizzically.

“I usually am...” Jason says, sliding his arms around Dick’s waist.

“I was fine on Zamaron. I mean, the Star Sapphires didn’t really know what to do with me, but I was fine.” Dick smiles at Jason softly.

“Told you.” Jason smirks. Dick winds his arms around Jason’s shoulders and kisses the smirk right off his face, humming contentedly when Jason bites at his lower lip and pulls it enough to make it sting a little.

“You did.” Dick nods, a wicked gleam in his eye that Jason shouldn’t enjoy as much as he does. “And now you get your reward.”

“Reward? What am I being rewarded for?” Jason grins and Dick grabs his arms and spins him around, pushing him back until his knees hit the side of the bed.

“Keeping your promises. Not being dead. Giving me a second chance. Take your pick.” Dick says, pushing Jason hard until he tips back. Jason lands on his back on the bed, pushing up onto his elbows automatically as he watches Dick turn off his forcefield and strip in seconds. He stares at the acres of golden skin that’s revealed as the clothes come off. He eyes trip over the familiar scars that adorn Dick’s body as a result of spending his teenage years as a vigilante. His gaze slips up to Dick’s face, still gorgeous, but a little more worn that the version that graces his magazine. Dick’s shaggy hair frames his bright blue eyes, faint smile lines tracing out from the edges, and Jason prefers this version, not just because it’s the man in front of him taking his clothes off, but because this version is real and loves him. Loves him enough to change allegiance from the Green Lanterns to the Star Sapphires. It makes Jason’s head spin.

Dick stands over him, looking down at Jason. Jason wonders what he sees when he looks at him, almost asks, but then he sees the heat and longing on Dick’s face and knows that whatever he sees doesn’t matter. Dick loves him. Dick wants him. And god or whatever moves the universe knows that Jason feels the same for Dick. 

“Well, get over here then, _Star Sapphire_. Show me what you can do.” Jason grits out, pushing the tender feelings down in favour of showing Dick how he feels with actions.

“You know, there’s just something about someone so full of rage, you have to wonder how that passion works in other settings...” Dick smirks, kneeling onto the bed and going on to hands and knees.

Dick crawls over him, dropping quick kisses on his way up, giving Jason a longer lingering kiss on the mouth before he moves up the bed further to straddle Jason’s head. Jason’s hands come up to support Dick’s thighs, holding him up just enough that Dick can rock in place without totally suffocating Jason. Dick grins down at him, lowering himself until Jason’s lips are brushing the tender skin of his inner thighs. Jason licks up, making Dick gasp and hum happily as he spreads his knees a little more and Jason licks in deeper between his cheeks. Jason grins rubbing his stubble gently into Dick’s skin, revelling in the way Dick jerks in response. He presses a wet kiss to Dick’s hole, doing it again when Dick moans and leans back for more.

Jason flicks his tongue teasingly over Dick’s hole, barely letting the tip push in before he pulls it back. Dick lifts a hand to his mouth to muffle his whine as pushes down onto Jason’s face. Dick leans back further as Jason starts to push his tongue in deeper, thrusting smoothly before pulling out to swirl around the sensitive pucker. The sweet noises that Dick’s making behind his hand are getting Jason harder, cock throbbing and pushing against his pants. As much as Jason wants to reach down and relieve some of the pressure building up, making Dick whimper loudly is more important right now.

Jason takes a deep breath when Dick leans back enough to rest some of his weight on his free arm. Diving back in to alternate between wet sucking kisses and swirling his tongue around Dick’s loosening hole. Dick’s arm gives out, leaving him to flop back onto Jason’s torso. The sudden weight makes Jason grunt, the exhale of air blowing against Dick’s spit slick skin and causing him to shudder and gasp prettily. Jason keeps working Dick’s hole, humming loudly now, wanting to hear that pretty little muffled whimper again. Dick throws his head from side to side, rubbing his soft hair into Jason’s lower belly, and the tickling of the ends of his hair makes Jason thrust up without meaning to.

Dick pulls at Jason’s pants, freeing his cock and Jason groans out a slurred thank you into Dick’s skin. Dick twists his head, catching at Jason’s cock with his lips and leaving a sucking kiss on the shaft. Dick moves his hand to hold the base steady and continues to kiss up until he reaches the glans, licking lightly at the drop of precum beading up at the slit. Dick opens his mouth wide and takes the head into his mouth, groaning happily as he slides down. The vibrations on Jason’s cock feel so good that Jason has to let his head thump back, dizzy with pleasure. He squeezes Dick’s thighs, his fingers pressing bruises into the skin that he knows Dick’s going to be pleased with later.

He gets back to work, thrusting his tongue in and out with no messing about now. Dick starts rocking his hips in time with Jason’s thrusts in the familiar way that means Dick’s about to come just from Jason’s tongue. Dick whimpers as he covers his belly with streaks of cum, clenching down hard on Jason’s tongue, and Jason feels a sense of pride swell through him. There’s no feeling like knowing he’s made Dick come, hearing the noise he makes and how every part of him clamps down to keep Jason inside him.

Dick rides him through his orgasm, relaxing for mere seconds once he comes down before working his mouth faster over Jason’s cock. Jason only lasts a few thrusts once he does, the satisfaction from earlier combined with the delicious suction Dick’s giving him tipping him over the edge, until he’s come down Dick’s throat with almost vicious pleasure.

Dick rolls off him, twisting on the bed so he can cuddle up next to Jason, resting his head on Jason’s chest, tapping his finger in time with Jason’s slowing heartbeat.

“Mmm. That was even better than I remembered.” Dick murmurs softly. “We need to do that more.”

“Yeah? Glad you could manage it?” Jason says, wondering if Dick remembers he’d said that after their first kiss.

“Yeah.” Dick leans up and nuzzles at Jason’s nose with his own. “Still better than a chocolate bar?”

“Yeah, always.” Jason says, sliding his arm around Dick’s waist and leaning his forehead against Dick’s. “Although, honestly? I can barely remember what one tastes like now, it’s been so long.”

“Well, I guess you’ll have to come back to Earth with me and find out, won’t you?” Dick grins. “I want you to meet Alfred, Tim and Bruce.”

“Really, even like this?” Jason’s not sure about going, but on the other hand he’s really got no reason not to.

“Especially like this, Jason.” Dick kisses him again. “I love you. You’re mine again. So I want you to come home with me.”

“Guess I can’t say no to that. Except, I got a condition.” Jason smirks, tapping Dick’s nose and enjoying the way he cutely scrunches up his face at that move.

“Oh? Is it another round of amazing sex? Because I could be persuaded...” Dick teases, idly trailing a finger over Jason’s chest.

“Yes. That. And I want you to sign my magazine.” Jason says, rolling them over so Dick’s underneath him and right where Jason wants him.

“Anything for you, Jason. Anything for you.” Dick smiles softly, pulling him down for another soul shaking kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I wrote this entire story while wearing my Red Lantern ring. :Db
> 
> Notes on how the rings work:  
> So, my rings are slightly more sentient that the canon rings are, and I tried to show that all was not well with Jason’s green ring (“You’ll do, I suppose.” The ring being loose and unwieldy, Jason taking the ring off and leaving it his quarters twice on page and a lot more times off page...) perhaps not as successfully as I hoped to. It abandoned him because of a mixture of fear and Jason’s few minutes of ‘I don’t want to be a GL any more’. Jason’s green ring is actually notorious among the Guardians for choosing young inexperienced wearers and only keeping them for a few years. Jason was the last in a long line of lanterns it abandoned (most of who died immediately.) However, after Jason ‘died’ the Guardians retired his ring after their suspicions about its wearer turnover rate, and basically covered it up. As a consequence, neither Jason nor Dick knows this information and as it’s in Jason’s POV, I couldn’t figure out a way to work it into the story. 
> 
> Jason’s red ring, by contrast, is almost motherly? Jason has Depression in this fic, which hits him fully on Petra, and the red ring energises him enough to function but the price is blind rage and Atrocitus controlling him. Canonically the only thing that really affects a Red Lantern is love, so when Jason’s on Petra and can start to feel other emotions than rage, his love for Dick and Dick’s love for him start to affect his ring. Once he’s fully recharged and on Elpis, that love continues to fight Atrocitus’ control while the Red Ring combats his depression, leaving Jason angry, but not blind with rage. One of Jason’s main traits in canon is his anger at the injustice others suffer, which is actually why the Red Lantern corps was founded. (Before, of course, they got twisted by hate.) So at the end of this fic, Jason’s more like the Red Lantern’s were supposed to be rather than what they are under Atrocitus.


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